Little note: when fusions say 'we', they mean their full conscious, while saying 'I' indicates only the part of consciousness that belongs to the gem speaking. E.G: Garnet.

I=Garnet;

We=Garnet, Ruby and Sapphire.

With that said, enjoy.

We were together… it was a good feeling.

But we were also angry.

Our four eyes opened, brown and green swirling in an endless vortex, and locked on Jasper. We were going to end that story once and for all.

With a mental nod to each other, my two parts got to work: Alex checked our physical and special powers, which were greater than what both had when put together, while Daniel devised plans and tactics for us. In the meantime, I summoned our weapon.

What came out was a pair of sickles, which looked like the top of Daniel's scythe, one blade was an ashy grey, with a forest green crest; the other one had inversed colors.

Once I was done with admiring my new sickles, I looked around me, and gave a little cough to test my voice. "I suggest you step back. This is going to be quite the hetic fight."

The other gems, except for Jasper, did as I said and moved away, giving us quite the wide berth. We started circling each other, ready for an attack. Jasper had her helmet on, and her expression was a mix of anger, wariness and a tinge of amusement. While I was examining her, she chose to speak up: "You might as well give up. Both of you are too weak to even scratch me, what do you think you can do, even if you are together?"

My right eyebrow rose a little, Jasper's arrogance annoying us quite a lot. "At your full power? Not really much, I'd wager. But after being beaten up by Garnet, and having a spaceship fall on you… I'd say we're powerful enough to give the finishing blow."

She tsked at that. "So you were waiting for me to be in my proverbial last legs, and then strike me down? Such warriors you are."

I shrugged at that, and smiled a tad. "Never said we were. Maybe you gems abide by some honor code or whatever, but we don't particularly care. Do you even know what we even are?"

She looked a bit perplexed at our question, so much that she stopped, favoring to stare at us. "What kind of question is that? You're obviously a Tsavorite and a black Spinel. Experimental as you may be, I've seen enough gems of your type to know."

Daniel's habit for playing "the point of the discussion is lava" was kicking in, and I chose to let it run free for a bit. Might as well confuse her.

"You only see us as gems, not for what we are in character. Are you aware of how project Lazarus was conducted?" taking the slight shake of her head as a no, I continued: "I don't have the full details, but in short, they fused the essence of two organic beings, two human souls, into the same gems you spoke of to 'overcharge' them, so to speak. The result are two gems with an unknown potential, who kept the same aspect, memories, personalities and allegiances from when they were still alive. You gave two of the possibly weakest sapient beings in existence the power to back up their cunning and determination."

I watched on in glee as her face morphed from confusion to shock. 'And now, to bring it home.'

"In other words, we're weapons ready to attack anything we don't like. And guess what? We don't like you."

With that, I let loose the crapload of thunder I backed up during my speech. The attack caught Jasper by surprise, but she recovered just in time to block it hastily. Still, the hit was powerful enough to make her fly back, and slam into the cliff behind. While she was reeling, I ran full force towards her. She blocked my attack, and threw me back with a punch. I pulled myself up, and jumped away just in time to avoid Jasper falling right were I was. I called up some thunder, and released it in short bursts in order to create an electric SMG. Each shot did little, but multiplied for a couple dozens of 'em, the damage was visible.

While using one hand to keep up the barrage, I fiddled with one of my sickles, and found out that I could remove the blade on one srecreate Alex and Daniel's weapons separately. It didn't take me much to find out, as all I had to do was check Alex's theories. When my reserves got low, I threw a last shot at the ground, kicking up sand to shield myself from Jasper's eyes. Swinging Daniel's scythe in the middle of the cloud, it dispersed, showing nothing within. I looked up, just in time to catch a glimpse of Jasper and a flash of light hitting her, causing a small explosion that threw her away from me.

Turning in the direction I saw the flash came from I was greeted from the sight of a very tall gem, whom we recognized as Opal, courtesy of Steven's storytelling. We exchanged a brief nod to each other, before returning our attention to our common enemy.

Jasper had just finished getting up, and was staring both of us down with absolute rage plastered on her face. I just couldn't pass up that chance, so I taunted her:

"What is it? Having trouble keeping up with two failed experiments, a servant and a runt? I thought you were supposed to be a warrior, yet all I can see is a cloud of ego and lies!"

That set her off to the point where she threw herself at me, but in her rage left her legs open to tripping. Capitalizing on that, I ducked and rolled into her legs at the last moment. She faceplanted and skidded for a couple meters, and in that time I charged up all of the energy I had remaining into one last attack. I jumped onto Jasper's back while she was still down, and stabbed her back with my sickles, unloading around 1500 volts of power into her. It lasted only a couple seconds, and it absolutely drained me. Losing my grip, I slid right next to Jasper. I could still see her twitching a little, but I was too tired to even lift a finger.

What caught my eye was a huge hand of water rising up and grabbing Jasper. It gave a quick and powerful squeeze, crushing her completely and making her explode into a small cloud. A movement to my left caused me to look in that direction, and I was greeted by Pearl's face. I could see she was worried, but also… curious? Doubtful? Whatever, who cares. Point being, she was trying to talk to me, but I was so far gone that I couldn't make heads nor tails of her words. I was slipping away more and more, and last thing I knew, was Lapis kneeling next to me, looking... concerned.

And then, I was no more.

Alex (Zenith)'s P.O.V.

When I came to, I stayed still, basking in the coziness of the bed I was in. Listening in, I could hear a heated discussion coming from what I assumed was downstairs. Straining my ears, I picked up on what they were saying.

"- I understand, they did lie to us for this whole time, but think about it. They've found themselves thrown into a completely foreign world, in a war that wasn't theirs to begin with, where anyone could be out to kill or to manipulate them. They did the only reasonable thing: hide information from who they saw as a possible enemy. It is perfectly understandable from what I see." Said Garnet, in all her wisdom.

Still, it didn't deter Pearl from screeching like a seagull. "I know that, but still! Who knows how much we don't know about them, about what they could do! They said so themselves: weapons ready to attack anything they don't like! What assures us that we won't be the next?!"

Amethyst piped up, while gnawing on something. "You know, I think you're just exaggerating. I mean, they didn't do anything yet, no? That one time Midnight, or whatever his name really is, almost attacked us was because he thought we were enemies. Plus, he forgot about us almost immediately when that corrupted appeared. And have you seen how Zenith acted then he heard you talking crap about Midnight? To me, they only fight to protect each other. So I say, as long as we don't try to hurt them, they shouldn't do anything to us."

"A sound idea." Said Garnet "What would you say, Lapis?"

"Well," drat! She was right next to me, and I didn't realize it! "I really didn't spend much time with either, as I suspect you know, but if you want answers, you should probably ask them directly. Speaking of which," she tapped my forehead. "this one is awake."

Seeing no more use to keep pretending, I opened my eyes and scanned my surroundings. Daniel and I were laying on Steven's bed, again, and Lapis was sitting in a chair right next to us. Raising my eyes to meet hers I noticed a little of amusement in her look, like when you watch a kid do something silly, and by her point of view, it might as well be just that.

Garnet walked up the steps, and sat cross-legged right in front of me.

"I think you owe us an explanation."

I pulled myself up and propped myself on the headboard, saying: "I have to admit that I'm bad with lecturing others. Why don't you just ask something, and we can go from there?"

She nodded, and asked immediately: "Is Zenith your actual name?"

I shook my head. "No, my name is… was Alex. Call me whichever, I suppose. But I'm gonna keep Zenith for now. After all I've been through, I want to start off anew."

She didn't comment on that. In the meantime, Pearl and Amethyst had joined us, and Amethyst chose to ask her own question: "Hey, do you remember what happened before you became a Gem?"

The memories of those last few days of my ex-life flashed in front of my eyes for a couple seconds. I was about to break down, but steeled my nerves. 'It's no use crying. They're not here anymore, but I am, and it's no use to mourn forever. I need to move on.'

The gems must have noticed how my expression darkened, as Amethyst piped up once more. "Y-you don't have to answer right now if you don't feel like it. I can understand."

I shook my head, and a small, bitter smile returned to me. "Don't worry. You were bound to ask, before or later. Here goes…"

And I told them everything. How everyone died, how the system collapsed, and of that last, fatidic day.

Flashback

"Look, Daniel! A falling star! Come on, make a wish!"My friend followed my finger with his eyes, just in time to catch its tail before it disappeared in the horizon. He had a slight smile on, and said:"Alright then. I wish we had a new chance. I wish we could be somewhere where we could actually live a life worth to be remembered. That good enough?"I knew he was joking, as our situation really didn't have a way out, but still…"That was alright, but I really don't think it is going to work."He shrugged. "Heh. Worth a shot, right? And then, hoping a little wouldn't hurt. C'mon, It's late. Let's go to sleep."While we huddled next to each other, I couldn't keep my thoughts from returning to what he said: 'hoping a little wouldn't hurt.'My last thought before falling asleep was:'I just wish I could have avoided everyone's death.'

End flashback

My tale caused different reactions from the gems: Garnet stayed quiet, pondering something; Amethyst was stunned; Lapis was silently tearing up, and Pearl… well, she was the most vocal about it:

"You really expect us to believe that? We've been on this planet for thousands upon thousands of years on this planet, and I can guarantee that this has never even been close to happening! How about you start telling us the truth for a change?"

I was about to rebuke to that, but I felt a hand place itself on my shoulder, and a shadow loomed from behind me.

"How about you shut that trap of yours for a change? He's just described what most probably was the most jarring experience either of us ever experienced, and yet all you did was blow it all off as a lie! He trusts you all enough to tell you what we've been hiding for around two weeks, why don't you return at least a tenth of that trust and help us make sense of it all, because he just told you pretty much all we know about our situation, and as you can see what we know amounts to this," he pinched the air for emphasis, "much. Not much, is it? Well, make it work, 'cause that's what we have."

Both Pearl and Daniel were locked in a staring match, while everyone else, except for Garnet, was staring at the two of them, mouths agape.

"You-" Before Pearl could start her own tirade, Garnet stepped in.

"Let's stop before this gets even worse. For now, let's all settle down and return to the actual reason this discussion began." The two settled down, but kept shooting glares at each other every now and then.

Daniel was doing his best to avoid meeting Pearl's eyes, as he probably didn't want to explode again like that. His sights fell onto Lapis, who was drying her eyes just then.

"Lapis, you okay?"

She finished with her eyes, and looked up to him, with eyes filled with… pity? Empathy?

"Don't worry about it. It's just… your tale made some bad memories resurface. We're more alike than you'd believe."

A heavy silence filled the beach house, and Amethyst chose to interrupt it. "Say, we know Zenith's real name now, so… what's yours?"

He seemed to ponder whether to answer that or not, but in the end… "Name's Daniel. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He then extended a hand towards Amethyst.

The sniggered a little at that, and shook his hand. "I'm Amethyst. Second-to-youngest member of the Crystal Gems, and biggest party animal in Beach City," she then shapeshifted into a bear, "quite literally."

That pun was what all of us needed, and the dam broke, rambunctious laughter surging from everyone. After a couple minutes of it, we managed to calm down enough to sit up again.

"Alright then," I started, "how about we continue with the QA now?"

Timeskip

It ended pretty well, if I do say so myself. The next questions ranged from our past, to what happened on Homeworld, but without any omission. That answered to a good amount of their curiosity, but surprised everyone when Daniel admitted that he had met that 'Peridot' woman, and that he had stuffed her in a closet. That definitely explained why she seemed to target him first in our fight, going as far as to shoot him when downed.

"She must know more about this 'project lazarus' then she let on. All the more reason to find her." Said Garnet, and I found myself agreeing with her. The more details we had, the easier it would be to understand our new reality.

Nonetheless, having us reveal who we actually were lessened some of the tension between us and the Gems. A couple days passed, and while I usually spent my time with Steven, Connie and, to help with my sword, Pearl, Daniel was around Lapis and Amethyst a lot, although sometimes I found him having some casual discussions with Garnet, which usually end up in her lecturing him about some thing or the other, to his insistence. She didn't seem to mind, so it was good.

Amongst other things… there seemed to be quite some strife between Lapis and Pearl. Both Daniel and I tended to step back when they started to fight, but were ready to hold them back if it came to blows. The latter actually happened once or twice. Daniel keeps irritating Pearl every now and then with his sarcasm and/or sass, but they've reached some sort of compromise. Dunno what it is, but it doesn't really concern me.

So far, we managed to relax, although we still had to pitch in for the repairs to Beach city. Lucky enough, no one actually got hurt, except some scrapes here and there.

Now, if we could keep it that way would be great…