AN: So this chapter has some love thrown at Lapis and Peridot. And it gets a little confusing but I will explain at the end of this chapter promise. Anyway I don't own Steven Universe. So yeah, enjoy ^^
Chapter 10-Hello Old Friend.
Lapis stared at the Warp pad in shock. What had just happened? That wasn't normal. Was that normal?
"Did it just go red!?" She demanded. She had never seen a warp pad do that. Peridot was still blinking in shock from her place where she had fallen in shock. She shook her head then nodded and looked to Lapis, eyes wide.
"I, y-yes" Peri stuttered and stood to look at the warp pad. "Did it just eat the gems?" She squeaked and ran her hand over the smooth stone. Lapis walked up behind her and frowned.
"Is there anyway to track where they went?" She asked trying to think of options. Peridot stood and moved to the pod to pull up any schematics that she could find. The console appeared for her to work with and her eyes glazed over with code as she searched. Lapis remained silent, worrying her bottom lip while she watched Peridot.
"It's still picking up Stevens heart signature, but when I look for a location, I keep getting met with error codes or just blank areas. Like he is alive but not on Earth. Oh my stars! Did they get sent into space?! Steven can't breathe in space!" Peri shouted her voice coming to a squeak on space. Peridot pulled her hands away from the console to grip at her hair on either side of her head. "The warp pad launched them into space" She whimpered before looking at Lapis. "Space" She squeaked again.
"Peridot!" Lapis said sternly. "They were not launched into space. One, the warp pad doesn't warp anywhere but to other warp pads, and two, your pod would tell us if they were in space." Lapis reasoned and turned to look at the warp pad. "How about this, bring me one of your old robonioids, lets see if we can replicate the warp." she said moving to Steven's room to get the warp whistle that his dad had left so long ago. Peridot stood and moved to get one of the marble robots that pearl kept outside. Pearl liked to look at the wiring on them and liked to try to reprogram them to try and get them to work in their favor.
Lapis glanced up when she walked back in holding the small robot. The flute was on the counter beside her and she was writing a note to the gems.
"What you writing?" Peridot asked as she set the marble on the pad.
"I'm going to send a note on Frank to the Gems, asking them where they are, and if they are okay, and I'm going to see if they can warp back to us, but just in case I'm warning them to send Frank back first to make sure its safe." Lapis explained as she finished her letter before hopping down to tape it to 'Frank'.
"I told you not to name them." Peridot grumbled and moved to the warp pad. "Was there anything that may have messed with the pad when they warped?" Peri wondered aloud. Lapis looked to the pod and nodded.
"You were writing in a program for the game" Lapis said, Peridot nodded and moved to 'frank' to input the coordinates that she wanted him to try to warp to. "I'll name them if I want to." Lapis grumbled as an after thought knowing that Peridot could hear her.
"Put the whistle with-Frank, I can send him manually, but Pearl doesn't know how to do that just yet." Peridot murmured, choosing to ignore Lapis's last comment. She flipped the little cover down over the robots back panel, she took the note from Lapis and taped it to the top of 'Frank' and taped the whistle to the letter. She stepped off of the pad and went to get one of her limb enhancers that Lapis had rescued from the ocean for her a few months back. She came back into the room and opened the screen on her pod to continue writing the code into the game then she pulled up the screen and ordered the bot to warp.
The room was engulfed in an angry red light again and Frank was gone.
"So what now?" Laps asked unsure, Peridot sighed and shook her head.
"Hope that they didn't get blasted into danger and keep things safe while we can." She supplied running a hand through her hair and turning to the door. "And don't let anyone, especially Greg or Connie, know that we can't find Steven or the rest of our team anywhere on earth" She ordered, Lapis could agree with her on that at least. If anyone in Beach city figured out that over half of their protectors were missing, there was no telling what would happen.
Moments later Frank returned, whistle and paper gone, as well as multiple chunks of the robot, oil and warp repair goo leaking everywhere. It looked like it had been ripped to shreds in the warp stream.
"That's not good" Lapis said moving to examine the robonoid. Peri shook her head and sat against her pod. "I guess we keep trying until we figure out how to bring them back" She murmured with a sigh.
Back to the Gems
Amethyst followed Garnet off of the warp pad to see what pearl had dropped and why, Garnet was about to pick up the face down photo when the room lit up red. Garnet turned to look at the warp pad and frowned at the little robonoid that stumbled off of the pad, rolling to a stop at her feet. Picture forgotten, she bent down to look at the little robot. She ripped the letter off of it and handed the flute to Pearl.
"Says that Peridot's pod can't find us, to warp back but because of the odd behavior of the pad it would be safe to warp, uhh, Frank back first and wait on them to give the okay." Garnet said and handed the letter back to pearl.
"Right" Pearl murmured and moved to place Frank back on the warp before activating the warp wit the little flute The warp activated a dark pink this time and Frank was gone with a sizzling noise.
"Right. What now?" Garnet asked turning to look at the almost identical house.
"Guys, someone is coming." Steven warned hearing talking outside of the house, in an instant Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl had taken up protective stances around Steven to wait on who could be walking in. All guards dropped however when they came face to face with..themselves.
The gems who had just walked in through the door looked at the intruders in shock before taking a protective stance around their own Steven, who peaked around Garnets legs.
"Who are you." The other garnet asked summoning her gauntlets. Which caused our own Garnet to summon her gauntlets.
"We are the Crystal Gems" Pearl exclaimed sounding slightly unsure "And you?" Pearl demanded.
The pearl that had just walked in frowned and shook her head.
"We are the Crystal Gems" The other Pearl said glaring down the other pearl.
"Woahoho" Both Stevens said in unison and ran to greet each other not really finding danger in the situation.
"Steven!" Both pearls exclaimed then look to glare at each other. Both Amethysts watched in silence seeming to be weighting the situation.
"Okay lets just calm down and sit down." Amethyst said holding up her hands and leaning on the counter. Things were weird, but she was sure that Garnet or Pearl could work something out.
"Hey Garnet!" Steven said in excitement, both garnets went to answer then stopped to glare at each other. "We may need to give three of them nicknames" Steven said to the other Steven.
"Right" Garnet murmured and pulled their Steven back to their own group before pointing to Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven in that order. "Amy, P, Steve, and" she gestured to herself, "Garn" She said with a shrug then looked to their doppelgangers who nodded, guards still not dropped.
"What is going on?" The other Pearl demanded looking at their now nicknamed clones.
"I think I know!" Amy said jumping up and down, all attention was turned to her. "Judging by the activity from the warp pad, I think we are in an alternate universe, or a second earth." Amethyst explained and looked to P, who nodded.
"That would explain the picture." She said about to explain when both Garnets went still.
"There's a mission." They said in unison then glared at each other. They looked ready to fight each other but stayed still.
"Oh lets just go" Pearl exclaimed and moved to the warp pad the others followed. The earth one gems stayed still knowing that they all wouldn't fit, and secretly Garn, wondered if the pad would react the same way.
"We will meet you there." Garn told the Earth two doppelgangers. It wasn't very far and they could run there pretty fast, Steven would need to be carried, but they could make it pretty fast within an hour if they left now.
"See you there" Steven said before the pad activated a normal blue and they warped off.
"What is going on?" P demanded as they ran to the location that they were needed at. She seemed distressed by what was going on and honestly Garn didn't blame her. The only one who seemed not shaken by all of this was Amethyst.
"I guess we got warped to another earth. I'n theory and now practice its possible, I'm just not sure how." Garnet said looking ahead. Pearl nodded biting her lip, and stopping at the location. Steven looked up at Garnet and frowned.
"So how do we get home?" He asked her in concern, Garnet didn't want to alarm him so she chose to purse her lips and shrug. He took that as enough of an answer and simply looked ahead of the group as Garnet walked towards the cave.
They met up with the other them and followed behind into the depths of the cave. Both Stevens chatted idly and discussed the similarities and differences between both Beach Cities. Everyone else remained silent as they walked into the depths of the cave. Eventually even the two Stevens lapsed into silence. They came to a fork in the cave and stopped not knowing which direction to go.
"I hear something." Amy whispered and looked to Pearl who looked to P. Both nodded and each group split off into opposite directions to see where the noise was coming from. Garnet skidded to a stop, causing her companions to stop as well. A wall of what looked like glass was spread across the cave wall. Garnet ran her hands over the glass and frowned.
"What made this?" She questioned quietly not quite sure of the answer. She had no idea what this Earth was capable of or what it held. For all she knew there could still be Gems on this Earth other than the Crystal Gems. She was about to smash the glass but stopped when she saw their doppelgangers come running in on the other side of the glass. Garnet jumped back when the glass began to hum and glow a yellowish color. Earth two Garnet seemed to have a better understanding of the situation and looked alarmed. She ran to the glass and place a hand cautiously against the glass and yelped wen it zapped her.
"You need to get out of this cave. Now!" She ordered and turned to run herself, stopping dead in her tracks when a wall of yellow blocked their exit. She looked to Pearl and Amethyst and they all pulled Steven into a hug Before stepping in a circle around him, weapons drawn. Both Garnets locked eyes and then someone walked from the shadows of the trap room. Garnet grabbed Pearl's arm and Amethyst clung to Pearl to hide. Garnet gathered Steven against her, refusing to let him lift his face from her neck, knowing he didn't need to see what happened. The three of them watched in horror as Yellow Diamond and her pearl strode from the shadows.
"I told you it would work my Pearl." She told the smug looking yellow pearl who glared at the battle ready group.
"We need to go" Garnet whispered to pearl, watching as a Jasper followed Yellow Diamond and took out that damned destabilizer. She caught one last glance at her double before pulling her family out of the cave, ignoring the sounds of fighting behind them. She knew Yellow diamond, Both Ruby and Sapphire knew of her strength, there was a very slim chance of them getting out of there. Steven didn't need to see that, neither did the rest of them, even if they all knew that they had probably just seen themselves die.
They ran from the cave in silence, none of them had any thought to say anything. Hell even if they did, they wouldn't. Yellow Diamond had never come to their Earth, she hadn't wanted to. What was so different that she would step foot here? Garnet hardly had time to think over that question before she had both Steven and Amethyst in her arms and was running again, Pearl hot on her tail. They got back to the temple and crashed through the door. To come face to face with a shocked looking Emerald.
On over to Peri and Lapis
Peridot sat on the couch looking through her limb enhancers computer, trying to find any explanation for what had happened.
"Aliens" Lapis suggested with a shrug trying to think of any reason for what had happened. Peridot gave her a annoyed look and rolled her eyes.
"We are aliens Lapis" Peridot deadpanned, Lapis sighed and ran a hand through her hair.
"I'm just trying to help Peri, I care for them too and I want them back just as much as you do. They are my friends too." She added and put her head in her hands. Peri sighed and shook her head.
"I know, I'm sorry. I'm just completely lost with what to do." She murmured and leaned back on the couch abandoning her limb enhancer, it was no help anyway. Lapis sat beside Peridot and leaned against her. "What if we cant figure a way back?" She asked quietly. Lapis put a comforting hand on Peri's knee and and sighed.
"They will come back, they always figure something out. We just need to be willing to wait and do anything we can to find them." She sighed and sat up. "So lets get back to work, we don't need sleep, and they need all the help they can get." She said and stood back up.
"Lapis, you don't know anything about any of my tech." Peridot argued. Lapis sighed and shook her head.
"Then I can hand you what you need, I don't need to know tech to know tools." She said with a smile to Peri. Peri sighed and nodded.
"Alright lets get to work." Peridot said and moved back to the pod. "Maybe I can take apart the pod and hook it to the warp pad to track where they went better and that could create a two way make a open warp stream that could work as a window to get them back" Peri said and trailed off quietly murmuring to herself as she worked on the pod, striking ideas before they had a chance to reach completion.
"Lapis I need a notebook and a pen, I need to do some calculations." Peridot said not looking up while she held her hand out for Lapis to give her what she needed. Lapis supplied her with what she asked for and stood by waiting to see what was needed of if she could help with anything. They would get them back even if Peri and Lapis had to tear the temple and every bit of tech they had apart to figure anything out.
AN: Okay so explanation to the name thing. Our Crystal Gems were the ones with the nicknames, I only really used the nicknames if they were around the other gems. I will try to have another chapter up tonight, uhm leave a review if ya want. Any way I hope you enjoyed this one, stay safe, stay awesome.
~Fangy =^,..,^=