Freshwater sighed as she tried for what felt like the hundredth time that day to summon her weapon. True to her word, Pearl a plan to train her, and the first lesson was learning to summon her weapon. "I would offer to teach you how to wield a sword, but I think it would be better if I knew your gem weapon first." The pale gem had explained.
"Hey, Freshwater, don't stress so much!" Steven said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It took me forever to learn to summon my weapon. And I still can't do it sometimes." He said, frowning and looking down at his gem.
Pearl nodded, looking up from her book from the kitchen table where she sat with Garnet and Amethyst. "Yes, learning to summon a weapon is difficult. But you'll get the hang of it." She comforted, giving them a reassuring smile. "Yeah! And then you'll be able to summon it as easily as us!" Amethyst exclaimed, summoning her whip and twirling it in her hand proudly. Garnet simply nodded and gave the pair a thumbs up, a signal that Freshwater didn't understand the meaning behind but that she enjoyed anyway.
Freshwater took comfort in the fact that the defective Amethyst could summon her weapon. Maybe she could do the same? She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at the thought, but nonetheless returned Pearl's smile awkwardly as she made the same hand gesture as the fusion.
The group looked up when an exhausted looking Greg burst through the door, clutching his gut and wheezing. "Uh, you buys better come check this out."
Freshwater tailed behind the gems on the way to the beach, blushing lightly when Pearl motioned for her to come stand next to them along with Beach City's other citizens, who were staring at the - wait, where was the shoreline?
"What's going on here?" A man asked, running up to Garnet with a device that appeared to magnify his voice. Freshwater rolled her eyes, recognizing the man as the same one who had almost hit her and Steven with his truck. "The ocean is gone. Obviously." The fusion said simply. "That's right! Now it's just a desert. No one wants to take a vacation to Desert City!" The man said, falling to his knees and wailing.
Freshwater cringed visibly before looking up at Pearl, confused. "That's Mayor Dewey. He's basically in charge of this place." Steven explained. Freshwater scoffed. This was The Diamond's colony. This...earthling didn't own the ground it walked on.
"It was Lapis Lazuli." Garnet said, knocking the annoying machine from the man's grasp. "Lapis Lazuli?" Steven asked, confused. "She's the gem you two released from the mirror." Pearl exclaimed, rolling her eyes as she depicted the ocean gem. Freshwater cringed and sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck as the citizens "oohed" and "aahed" over the depiction. "But, she's a gem just like us!" Steven said defensively.
Pearl sighed as the hologram disappeared. "There's a lot you don't know about gems, Steven."
"How did I not know the gem in that mirror could be so powerful?" Pearl murmured. After explaining what was going on, the gems, along with Connie and Freshwater, had returned to the temple. Freshwater was sitting on the couch with her eyes squeezed shut, trying again to summon her weapon.
"I'm leaving to fix what I did to our home. I was the one who set Lapis free from the mirror. Now it's my fault the ocean's gone." He said, looking down sadly. Freshwater looked up guiltily at Steven's words. "I'm gonna bring the ocean back, or get really thirsty trying!" He said, before turning to leave, determined.
Before he was out the door, however, Greg placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Wait up, kiddo. I'm coming with you." Connie placed her hand on Steven's back as well, giving him a kind smile. "I wanna help too." She paused before smirking. "Also, I feel really weird being in your house if you're not here." Pearl cleared her throat, drawing the attention of the group. "Clearly we're coming too." She said, crossing her arms with a smile.
Steven looked around at all his friends, starry-eyed before his gaze landed on Freshwater, who was still sitting on the couch. "Freshwater? Are….are you coming?"
Freshwater scoffed before standing and joining Steven and the others next to the door. "Well, I am also responsible for freeing Lapis Lazuli." She said quietly, deciding not to not mention her main reason for going was to protect Steven. She could handle the concept of failing an order by dying while protecting Steven, but to have him get himself killed because she hadn't even tried was ridiculous. Garnet gave her a thumbs up before turning to Steven. "You're ungrounded by the way."
Freshwater pursed her lips as she watched Steven and Connnie from the top of Greg's van. The pair were gripping Lion's mane as the creature ran, leading the way out of Beach City. Freshwater wasn't sure how she felt about the pink beast. It was simply another oddity that she had come to except, showing up when Steven and the others came back from a mission and seemed oddly attached to Steven in particular. It seemed to be helping them, though, so Freshwater guessed that was good?
"Room up here for one more?"
The Pearl jumped and looked up to see Garnet lifting herself onto the van. Freshwater nodded and scooted over to make more room for the fusion. After a few moments of watching the countryside fly by, Garnet finally spoke. "You seemed troubled. What's bothering you?"
The light blue gem frowned, deep in thought. "I...I don't know." Freshwater admitted, looking away. "It's just…..all of this is really new to me." She sighed before bringingg her knees to her chest, crossing her arms, and bringing her chin to rest on them. "Things here are so much different than they were when I was with Holly Blue Agate and Peridot."
"Good different, or bad different?" Freshwater's frown deepened at the fusion's question. Truthfully, she didn't know. Theoretically, she should love being with the gems. She wasn't beaten, she was treated as if she was as important as the rest of them, and she wasn't forced to do anything she didn't want to. But she still found herself with the same mentality from when she served the Agate. Pearl had been right, she felt useless when she wasn't performing tasks. She didn't feel like she was worthy enough to even stand next to the others, let alone talk to them.
Freshwater looked up when she felt a warm gem on her head. "It's okay if you don't have an answer now. Switching from Homeworld's view is difficult, and will probably be moreso for you. But hopefully one day you'll learn to appreciate this planet, or at least learn to appreciate yourself." She said, leaning back on the roof of the van and staring up at the darkening sky.
Freshwater thought about the fusion's words the rest of the way. She highly doubted that she could change so drastically, but the thought seemed nice. Sighing contently, she started to relax and allow herself to lay down in the spot next to Garnet, when she saw a massive structure made completely out of water steadily approaching. Gulping, she tugged on Garnet's uniform and pointed at it.
The fusion instantly sat up and hopped off the car roof, Freshwater at her heels. "I don't understand. What does she want with the Ocean?" Pearl asked as Freshwater came to stand close to her.
The human seemed to barely notice the danger, bravely stepping forward and observing the fish. "Whoa, look at this! It's just like a giant aquarium!" She said excitedly. Freshwater started to tell Connie that that wasn't a good idea but was cut off by the booming voice of Lapis Lazuli. "You shouldn't be here!" She shouted, making everyone jump, Connie instantly running back to stand next to Steven.
Freshwater watched in awe as Steven faced the gem bravely. "Lapis Lazuli! It's me, Steven!" He shouted. Freshwater cringed as the gem's furious face formed in the structure. "Go away! Before I make you." She threatened. Freshwater clenched her fists and rushed forward to stand next to the human-gem hybrid. "But we're Beach Summer Fun Buddies!" Steven tried to console her. Freshwater jumped back, pulling Steven with her when the face composed of water shot forward. "You're one of them. The Crystal Gems." She spat. Freshwater flinched. She still wasn't sure about that last part.
"What do you mean? We're all gems, right? Just let us help you." Steven said, insistent. "You don't understand. Just leave me alone." The voice said, finally going back into the structure. Freshwater started to place a hand on Steven's shoulder to bring him back to the gems, but her hand met only air as the boy rushed forward, slamming his hands on the structure.
"We're not leaving Lapis! Not until you give us back our ocean!" He yelled. There was a brief pause before an arm gripped the boy's shirt tightly. "I said. Leave me alone!" Lapis shouted, punching him in the stomach and sending him flying backwards into Freshwater's arms.
Freshwater steadied the boy before checking to make sure he was alright. Luckily, he only looked a little shaken up. Looking up, she saw four forms emerge, taking on the form of the Gems.
"Greg, kids, Freshwater, you stay behind us. We'll handle this." Pearl said, summoning her spear. Freshwater nodded with a sigh of relief as she and the others rushed back to stand next to the van.
As much as Freshwater would like to say the gems beat the gem easily, truthfully they were getting creamed. Pearl had defeated slashed apart one of the water beings, but as soon as she had a second one emerged. Amethyst used her whip to toss rocks at hers, but the water mutant dodged all her attacks easily, using its own whip to tie her up when she let her guard down. Even Garnet seemed to be struggling, her mutant copying her attacks exactly until the fusion finally landed a punch to her foe's face. The victory was short lived, however, as the water simply flew back into place, enclosing around her fist, before kicking her and launching her backwards. Lion was taking on the Steven water mutant, which was dodging his attacks as easily as the Amethyst one had.
"Come on, Lion!" Connie tried to encourage him. "You can take me!" Steven added, pumping his fist in the air. Lion, however, could not take on Steven, and was instead thrown back into Greg's van, narrowly missing them. Greg immediately stood before rushing over, saying "Oh no, not the van!"
Freshwater gulped as she realized the gems probably needed help, even if the assistance she could provide was bare minimum. Looking down, she saw that Steven and Connie each had the same idea, shouting "Revenge!" Before rushing the structure. Freshwater nodded as she followed closely behind them, her heart pounding at the realization she would be going up against a powerful gem without even the ability to summon her weapon.
Yelling out loud battle cries, Steven, Freshwater, and Connie rushed the Steven water mutant. Connie and Freshwater each hurled rocks, while Steven used his water gun. Their attacks, however, only seemed to fuel Lapis's rage, the mutant grabbing the three of them and enclosing their heads in water.
Freshwater struggled against the strong hold Lapis had on them, her panic only growing when she saw Steven and Connie gasping for air. The panic was relieved quickly, thankfully, as the form disappeared when Greg's van plowed through it, dropping the three of them on the ground harmlessly.
Freshwater coughed and gasped for air, silently cursing her defective form before she composed herself and walked over to the kids, helping them up. "Is this a normal mission for you?" Greg asked from the van. "Because I'm not sure how comfortable I am with you going on these any-" he was cut off when the van was.launched upwards, landing a few feet away.
Freshwater and the kids rushed over to check on Greg. Thankfully, the only thing wrong was he had a broken leg and should be fine. "Lapis, I don't want to fight anymore." Steven said angrily, standing and turning to the form that had carelessly thrown his father like a rag doll. The form didn't seem to want to be reasoned with, instead summoning a water ball. "I said, I don't wanna fight!" Steven yelled, raising his arm as the water ball hurled off of him.
Freshwater prepared herself to shoot in front of the water and protect him, but to her shock, Steven summoned his shield at just the right moment, the water harmlessly bouncing back. Freshwater watched in awe as each of the water mutants dissolved one by one, her gaze returning to the shield that was now protruding from his gem. She had been told that the boy was the son of Rose Quartz, but she had never truly believed it. "Woah." Connie murmured as Steven's shield disappeared.
Determined, Steven walked up to the structure. "Lapis, I'm coming up to see you. Please don't drown me." He said, pushing himself into the structure. The gems looked mortified as a hand formed below him, starting the ascent to the top of the structure. Freshwater let out a low growl as she rushed forward, ignoring the cries of the gems as she launched herself into the structure as well. Barely managing to wrap her body around one of the large fingers, she silently prayed that there would at least be rocks at the top, and that, unlike the water structures, Lapis Lazuli could take damage from them.