Hello again! Sorry for the break in my update schedule. You all know that I don't own Steven Universe, just my OCs. I hope you enjoy the chapter!
The truck continued onward, passing several small towns and cities. There was enough food and water to last everyone a few more days, due mainly to their lack of resources, everyone couldn't help but be on edge. Since they knew they were on a planet full of monsters, aliens, and all sorts of things that would jump at the first chance they got to kill them all. Theo continued in roughly the same direction, only deviating from the path when there was a blockage that couldn't be cleared or a turn in the road. Thankfully there's been a record low of run-ins with anything for the past few days, the only recent loss being a Quartz who'd seen something interesting and stupidly decided to jump out of the truck; only to be violently pulled into the ground upon reaching their destination. Needless to say, nobody stayed long to find out what happened.
Everyone had been silent for the past few days, only speaking about problems that needed to be fixed and going silent once they were done. It was completely understandable, morale was at an all time low; the only thing keeping everyone together being the fear of what roamed outside the back door. They hadn't stopped since they'd gotten their supplies, the humans who knew where to go taking turns driving. At this point Theo was driving again, in silence like everyone else on the truck.
Nephrite sat in the passenger seat watching the sky change, as well as keep an eye out for Gem ships patrolling the area and dark shapes shifting just outside of her field of view. Many times in her existence has she been bored; be it waiting around for an important Gem to escort who always took far too long, or waiting around for her ship to be repaired and the Gems not being allowed to speak to each other for whatever reason. She'd fallen asleep several times, since even though the bore of standing around on Gem territory was painful, this was excruciating. Back around the colonies the waiting lasted days at most, but here.. She'd been doing nothing for the past few weeks! She'd give half her gem for something, anything to do!
She could keep her gem whole, because that was exactly when something happened.
The truck had been travelling through a road surrounded by a thick, mutated grass, it was about seven feet tall and obscured everything within from view. It was also very windy, causing the grass to shake wildly and release a fog-like cloud of multicolored pollen; masking any movement not on the road within about fifty feet. So you could understand her surprise when something jumped out and stopped in the middle of the road, right in front of the truck.
Theo noticed too, and immediately hit the brakes. Everyone lurched forward as the truck came to a stop, and for a few moments after there was silence.. Until a limb reached out toward the windshield, realizing it was a terrible idea to stop the truck, Theo hit the gas; running over the creature.
Behind the truck the air was filled with a pained, animalistic wail obviously from the creature that had just been run over by a two ton truck. For a few moments, the only sound was the pained howls of the poor beast, drowning out the roar of the engine. Until, slowly, the howls died down into loud, pained whimpers which were quickly overpowered by the distance of the truck and thickness of the fog. The truck continued on in relative silence, several ears ringing from the intensity of the sound, until the engine began to sputter, quickly quieting down. The only sound left being the rustling of the grass from the wind.
Theo looked at the dashboard, "Aw fuck."
Nephrite looked over, having been taught what several of the gauges meant she immediately saw the problem.. The truck was out of gas. Turning to the back of the truck she asked, "Do we have any more gas?"
Everyone looked around, trying to remember where the gas was left. The pearls all checked their gems, all coming up empty. Everyone immediately realized the implications of this, either they'd have to leave the truck behind, or several people would have to step out and push it until they reached a gas station that wasn't empty. Weighing their options, they argued amongst each other for several minutes.
"If we leave the truck behind we'll be vulnerable!" Someone said.
"If we don't we'll be stuck here!" Someone else replied, "Nobody's going to volunteer to push us!"
A new voice spoke up, "Of all times, this would probably be the best time to leave the truck behind, at least we aren't surrounded by monsters!"
Several of the humans went pale, and one stage whispered at the owner of the voice, "Don't jinx it!"
There was silence for several moments, everyone trying to make sure their changes of survival hadn't diminished from slim to none. Luckily, the forces of the universe had seemingly taken pity on the group, as nothing jumped out of the grass or the fog.
Someone pulled a map out of their pocket and looked at it for a moment, "According to this map, we're about fifty miles from Seattle."
Someone else looked over and asked, "Where'd you get asked?" Before getting ignored.
Theo looked back at everyone, "Good, Seattle's near where we're headed!"
Slowly, the back door was opened.. Luckily, there was nothing there. Everyone filed out, grabbing anything they could carry with the pearls taking everything else. Nephrite and Theo stepped out through the side doors and joined everyone else, who were surrounding the person with the map. After a moment they'd all planned their route and began walking down the road, the truck slowly fading away into the fog.
Looking around, Nephrite realized that they appeared to be in an overgrown town of sorts. In the fog she could see the faint outlines of abandoned houses and utility poles, several having some sort of unidentifiable plant life growing on it. Turning back to the group, Nephrite walked over to Nufon, "So.. The past few weeks have been pretty wild, huh?"
Nufon turned away from the path and looked at Nephrite, before turning back, "Yeah..." There was silence for a moment, "You know, I have to tell you something.."
Nephrite turned to him, silently asking him to continue.
"Before this mission, to come to this system I mean, my race had never encountered any friendly civilizations. Hell, we didn't even run into any individuals who were friendly. At our core, I'd like to think that Bellogan society is ultimately peaceful.. You know what, I'm getting off topic, to put it short.." Nufon turned to Nephrite, slowing down for a moment, "I just wanted to thank you.. For being nice. In the entire history of the Bellogan empire, you are the first alien anyone's met who's been a good person. And I very much appreciate that."
Nephrite had no idea what to say, and there was silence for a moment before Nufon continued.
"All my life I've had a dream that someday, perhaps the Bellogan Empire would become a multi-race coalition of sorts. Just imagine it, multiple intelligent species living on the same planets. Imagine being able to walk down to the street and passing several unique species on the way, all of them greeting each other with the same kindness you'd show to a good friend... Until I met you, I'd thought it was nothing but a fantasy, an impossible dream." He looked at her, a grateful look in his eyes, "And now that I know you, I can't help but think that; 'Maybe.. Maybe it's not so impossible.'"
Nephrite couldn't help but agree, it indeed sounded like a very nice universe to live in.
Everyone was silent, walking down the old road. The wind slowly subsided, and the pollen settling slightly, allowing everyone to see further and leaving the group in silence with the exception of all their footsteps.
Someone held up their hand, signaling for everyone to stop. Once everyone stopped and it was silent, they looked around for something.
Someone began to whisper, "What are you-" Before being promptly shushed.
There was silence once more, everyone straining their ears in an attempt to hear what had stopped them and looking around for anything that may have caused it. After about a minute, the person slowly lowered their hand and looked around, confused, before continuing to walk down the road.
Someone else then stopped, not raising their hand, and looked around, several others stopping as well to see what the person was doing. They continued on after a few moments just as the first, noticeably more on edge. After several minutes of walking and several others stopping, General Norg got sick of it, "Alright, what do you idiots keep stopping for?"
Everyone jumped, since he'd been silent for the past few days, one of the people who'd stopped looked at him, "There's something out there, dude."
Norg sighed, "There's always going to be something out there. Have you been living under a rock for the past few weeks?"
They looked him dead in the eyes, "This one's different. Whatever it is, I have a worse feeling about it than anything else we've encountered."
Everyone's eyes widened, and they all looked at each other. Nufon looked at the person, "What do you suggest we do?"
They stared at nothing for a moment before realizing that Nufon spoke to him, "I think.. I should go investigate."
Nufon looked at him like he just shrugged off getting hit by a meteor, "What!? That's suicide!" He shouted.
One of the other's who'd stopped quickly put their hand over his mouth, "Quiet!" They stood there for a moment, everyone looking around to make sure they hadn't attracted any attention.
Suddenly, a faint sound could be heard on their left, past one of the grass walls. The sound resembled a shriek, similar to someone who'd just realized there was a spider on their back. It couldn't be determined how far it was, other than 'distant.' The shrieks continued, sounding like a person who was being viciously attacked by something. The people who'd stopped suddenly walked over to the grass in unison, reducing the groups numbers from fifteen to nine; the remaining members being Nephrite, Nufon, Theo, Pearl, Peridot, Ocean, Norg, Belro, and John; one of the human soldiers who previously went unmentioned.
Belro went pale, "What are you doing?" He near-shouted, "We need to stick together!"
The one who was holding the map turned to look at Belro and tossed the map to him, not saying a word. They then turned back and all ran into the grass in the direction of the shrieks.
Everyone looked at the grass for a moment, john quickly picked up the map and looked at where they were going. Before freezing in place, shocked. Theo noticed this, and asked what was wrong, John responded in a quiet mumble, barely audible.
"Sorry, I didn't catch that." Theo told him, attempting to be as reassuring as he could.
John looked Theo right in the eyes, "There's no city this way.."
Everyone directed their attention from the grass to John, "What." Most spoke in near unison.
He looked at them all, "They lied to us... We're in the middle of nowhere."
Meanwhile, back on the Moon
Pink Diamond explained her plan to her pearl. She planned to shut down all of the other Diamond's experiments by unleashing a swarm of nanobots onto the planet, to specifically target and destroy everything the other Diamonds had done to the planet.
She'd had her peridots work tirelessly to produce enough to quickly cover the planet.
Once they'd built enough to fill even the largest lunar craters, she ordered they all be dumped onto the planet immediately. Which lead to now, the nanobots working their way from the southern hemisphere to the north, eating away at the horrible things the Diamonds had unleashed onto the poor planet. Several of the devices used were staffed, and so several of the Gems called their respective Diamonds once they realized their workplace was being turned into a strange dark cloud. The other Diamonds immediately called Pink. She looked over at her communicator and answered, the largest grin she could manage appearing once she saw the others enraged expressions.
"Pink, we know that you're responsible for this." Yellow chastised.
Pink Diamond tilted her head, "Yellow, I have no idea what you mean?"
Yellow Diamond's rage only rose, "Don't you lie to me! I see that smug grin on your face, don't even try to say that you haven't done this!"
Pink lost her grin and only looked annoyed, "Well, why have you three put all your experiments on my planet, huh? If you never expected me to get tired of you dumping all your garbage onto my colony, you shouldn't have told me it was mine." She scowled.
White Diamond looked at her, "Pink, look at me." Pink looked at her, "If you wanted us to leave you should have asked."
Pink scowled at her, "I shouldn't have to ask you to get off the planet you gave to me!"
White looked at her for a moment, before looking off screen, "You, peridot," She spoke, pointing to someone not visible, "We're testing experiment TRA-3C early."
A voice responded, "But, my Diamond, it's not ready yet!"
White Diamond scowled at the voice, a tiny 'peep' being audible off screen, "Did I stutter?"
The voice responded, "N- no my Diamond! I'll have it deployed right away!"
White Diamond looked back to Pink, "There, that should take care of it."
Pink Diamond's eyes widened, "What are you doing?"
White grinned, "It's a passion project of mine, a device meant to transport an entire planet to another location for easy harvesting."
Pink silently gasped, White enjoying watching the fear dance in her eyes, "Of course, however, it's not nearly powerful enough yet to transport a planet, it should be more than enough to get rid of that little swarm you've got there."
"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" Pink shouted at the screen.
White gained a menacing look, "Why not, Pink?"
Pink shrank down in her chair, "Y- you three gave me this planet, why are you doing this?" She asked, a sad, teary expression grazing her face.
"Because Pink," Blue spoke, "You've been ungrateful of all of the things we've done for you."
Pink's jaw dropped, "Things you've for me? I can count everything you've done for me on one hand. In fact, I will!" Pink held up a fist toward the screen.
Yellow rolled her eyes, "Pink, I'm sending out a transport ship to your location now. You're coming back to Homeworld whether you like it or not."
Pink looked at all the screens for a moment, before hanging them all up at once. She put her hands over her face, staying still for a moment before looking up with a look of determination. "Pearl, we're going down there, they won't be able to find us."
Her pearl nodded, not wanting to disobey her Diamond.
Pink ran down the stairs to the main floor of the base, passing the murals of the other Diamonds and opening the airlock. She looked up just in time to watch a large, black machine drop out of warp near the planet, 'That must be what White was talking about.' She thought.
Running to her ship, which was docked down a path on the lunar surface, she thought over what she was going to do once she realized she hadn't actually thought this through. 'Whatever I do, it's better than staying here.'
Off in the distance, the Bellogan fleet appeared, their arrival delayed by time-dilating devices the other diamonds had placed in Earth's orbit which were destroyed by the nanobot swarm. Boarding her ship, she left the door open for her pearl to follow.
The device White Diamond had sent turned to the fleet and activated, creating a gravitational vortex which the fleet promptly fell into.
Somewhere on Homeworld, several alarms began going off.
"My Diamond, something just damaged TRA-3C's coordinate system!" A peridot exclaimed.
White Diamond looked at the peridot, "Is that pesky swarm gone yet?"
The peridot responded, "Not yet, my Diamond."
White Diamond directed her attention elsewhere, "Then it doesn't matter, continue as planned."
"Yes, my Diamond!"
After the group of nine stopped panicking over being lost, they realized that another large device appeared in orbit. They watched as it turned and activated some sort of portal.
"Wait a minute, is that my fleet!?" Nufon shouted as he watched the familiar ships fall through the portal, likely to never be seen again.
They watched powerlessly as the ships fell through the portal one-by-one until one of them bumped into an antennae, bending it before it fell through the portal as well; followed by two more ships before the fleet was gone.
They all stared up at it for a moment before they realized the device was turning toward the planet, the portal still activated. Several stones on the road began to float, the pollen in the field following.
They all realized this, quickly grabbing onto pieces of grass nearby. Several moments later, the device fully turned toward the planet, resulting in everything not bolted to the ground to fall toward the new source of gravity.
A decent distance away, the could see everyone who'd run into the field fall toward the device, followed by several indiscernible dog-sized creatures. They also watched as the truck they'd spent so much time in fall as well, covered in the strange creatures. They watched as the clouds themselves were sucked through the portal, along with several strange black masses which fell apart upon contact with the portal.
All of the grass in the field tilted in the direction of the portal, shaking as winds began to sweep through as the gasses in the atmosphere were stripped from their planet and forced through the portal.
Nephrite held on to several strands of grass for dear life, looking around to make sure no one lost their grip. Suddenly, a sound which made her nonexistent stomach drop; the sound of grass ripping. She looked down at the grass she was holding on to to make sure she wasn't hearing things, and sure enough, several of the strands were broken.
She reached out for more grass, but couldn't get a grip on any from them shaking so much in the wind. She called out in a desperate attempt to get anyone's attention, when the rest of the grass she was holding on to ripped relatively silently. She began to fall toward the portal, desperately reaching out for something when she managed to grab something more solid than a blade of grass. Looking at it, she realized she had grabbed Belro's ankle. Belro barely had enough time to look at her before the grass he was holding onto snapped from the increased weight. They screamed silently, the sound not being audible over the wind that was passing them. Nufon noticed the two falling toward the portal and let go, not willing to lose the first friendly alien any Bellogan had ever met. Norg noticed him let go, and attempted to reach out and stop him, but was too slow. As soon as Norg swung his hand out, the grass holding him down snapped as well, already having been strained from him weighing a lot from his high muscle mass.
Nephrite was disoriented from being thrown around from the wind, and held on to the nearest thing she could with all her strength; which was Belro. She realized where she was going, and began to freak out again. Believing this was some sort of massive garbage disposal sent by the Diamonds, she didn't want to find out where it lead to but not really having a choice in the matter anymore.
She held on to Belro as she watched the portal grow in size, gaining a fairly good view of the inside.. She saw nothing through it, the debris fading into black once it passed through the portal.
Her life flashed before her eyes as she watched the void beyond the vortex grow in her vision, watching as what would surely be her prison for the rest of time approach ever so quickly. Once it filled her entire field of view she shut her eyes, not wanting to watch as the universe she'd lived her entire life in left her reach. She waited, the sound of wind deafening, as she was sure she'd passed through the portal. She slightly opened her eyes, seeing nothing she turned around only to see nothing else. She suddenly realized she wasn't holding on to Belro anymore, and looked around. Seeing nothing, she reached out to try to find something, anything to hold on to. Realizing there was nothing, she stayed there in the dark. Sure that this would be where she would be for the rest of ever, she gave up trying to find something, and simply stayed still. Reflecting on the short time she'd been alive for a Gem.
She closed her eyes, frowning, as she realized how pointless her life had been. Taking orders from Gems who didn't care about whether or not you were dead or alive. She sat there, thinking about retreating into her Gem for the rest of time when she noticed a speck of light. She blinked twice to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, and reached out to it. A white light suddenly overtaking her vision, she shielded her eyes.
And that is the end of the story! Don't worry, I have plans to make a sequel! I'm sorry for the break in updates, I was busy with somethings and life got in the way. But It's here now! It may be a while before I do anything else, though.
What did you all think of the monsters? Did I do a good job?
And as always, see you all next time!