A.N. Sorry about the wait, I'm trying to stop rushing and put out better chapters. Like I said before, this is gonna be a process so bear with me for a bit. Hope you like it! I also hope a certain little event I included isn't as hamfisted as I think it is, but I'm a bad judge of my own work. Enjoy!
Steven and the other gems spent half the day in the barn examining everything from Sam's house. It was enough of a distraction that Steven didn't think too hard about why two of his compatriots were absent. Probably a good thing, considering he tends to become emotional about even the most minute things. He really enjoyed the instruments that Pearl brought back, fiddling with the ukuleles the most, but also experimenting with the mandolin and even a hurdy gurdy, though after explaining who the hurdy gurdy belonged to, he set it down gently, afraid to damage it. Sam even had a quick jam session with Steven using one of Mal's old acoustic guitars that Lapis bubble. She had to shake the cobwebs off at first, fiddling around with basic chords, but after a few songs, it was like she never stopped playing. Scale work was the hardest to bring back to the forefront of her memory, but soon she was blasting through them. Pentatonic scales were easy, major and minor even more so, but she managed to pull out a diminished 7th like it was second nature to her. Steven's continuous compliments only caused her to try and impress him more. The back and forth went on for hours.
It was a wonderful way to spend the morning, and it kept Steven from asking any questions regarding his green and purple friends. If pressed, the gems wouldn't lie to him, they just didn't want to see him upset. They all thought that, if given enough time, Amethyst and Peridot would come back on their own, there would be a great reconciliation between everyone, group hug, and everything is back to the status quo, but of course that's not how things worked. Garnet and Pearl had to be an inch away from being shattered before they made up after the whole Sardonyx incident. Perhaps it was in their nature to put things off, and Steven was the opposite of that. He wanted to play an active role in helping friends stay friends.
Steven popped a bubble that had Sam's family picture in it, which of course prompted him to ask who was in the picture. This, in turn, led to Pearl, Sam, and Lapis all explaining everything that happened during the night. Steven was enraptured in the story, his eyes filled with stars for the duration of the tale, but Garnet had heard a much shorter version earlier, so she wasn't exactly surprised by anything new they said.
"So I bubbled the instrument and sent it to the temple, along with other things that might help us figure out exactly what Evie was doing here. Jades, as far as I'm aware, weren't meant for anything other than menial labor. They were put in cleaning crews, non-automated factories and the like. It's strange to me, however, that she hasn't been corrupted. After all, Garnet, Rose, and I were only safe because of Rose's shield. Amethyst was saved because she was still in the process of being made. Bismuth, if what she said is true, was bubbled and hidden away. Everyone… Everyone else…" Pearl didn't want to continue. She regained her composure and changed the subject away from the rebellion.
"In any case, this leads me to believe that Evie came to Earth some time after the rebellion. Of course, how she got here, how we missed it, that's all up for debate. Considering…" She paused for a moment, thinking carefully about her words. "Sam, I apologize if this is a sensitive topic for you, but, well, considering what you said happened to her and your father… I'm not certain we should investigate her further. Her reason for coming here was probably the same as Rose's. She was tired of Homeworld's prejudicial ways, snuck aboard a cargo vessel, stole a ship, something like that. There's no way of knowing. But what we do know is that the instrument she somehow created is a blend of Homeworld technology and human sensibilities. To be completely honest, I've never seen anything quite like it. Which is why I think we should test it out. With your blessing, of course, Sam."
Pearl smiled. She never asked a human for permission to do anything before. She was making good progress already. Amethyst would be proud of her. If she weren't brooding in the woods somewhere, Pearl thought.
Sam smiled at Pearl and nodded. "Absolutely. If everything you said about Evie is true, she'd be thrilled that what she made could be of some use to you. And besides, I'm dying to see you shredding on that thing by sundown."
Pearl let out a small chuckle. "I appreciate your belief in my musical ability, Sam, but I don't think I'm the one who's most qualified to do any of the testing. I'm more of a violin gem. It's much more sophisticated. No offense."
Garnet began to speak before Sam could say "None taken." She rose back to her feet, towering above the others. "We need someone whose abilities are centered around the guitar and the sounds that it makes. Someone who knows how all of this can work, someone familiar with both human and gem mechanisms." She smiled and stared at Steven. "Someone with a van."
Steven realized where Garnet was going with this soon after she finished her last sentence. He inhaled sharply for almost a little too long. Sam was about to say something to him, just to make sure he was ok, but he soon burst out of his trance. "I KNOW SOMEONE WITH A VAN!"
Steven had called his dad as he and all the currently present gems were heading toward the warp pad. It was a short call, mainly saying "Dad, we have a gem guitar, bring all your sound equipment and meet us at the temple," before the call abruptly ended. No phone was able to get a signal during the warp process, but Steven was sure his dad heard everything that was important.
Everyone was excited to see what this new gem device was capable of, but Sam and Steven especially. They both loved playing music, and they were both exceptional musicians, so they both came to the same conclusion; no matter what this new artifact did, it would rock. But Sam also had another reason that Steven could at least empathise with. It was her mother's. Or at least the closest thing to an actual mother she ever had. This was Sam's equivalent of Rose's sword, and Steven was happy that she might be able to experience the same catharsis he did.
It was around three in the afternoon when Greg showed up with his van. He honked a few times, signifying his arrival, before he got to work setting everything up for a guitar. Half stacks, crazy effects, reverb, and his favorite fuzz pedal. He, of course, was just as enthralled as his son. He was the legendary guitar dad, after all, this was his specialty.
Everyone exited the beach house around the same time, Pearl bringing the bubbled instrument with her under her arm. Steven was the first one onto the sand, however. He was a fast little guy.
"Dad!" he yelled, jumping to embrace his father. Greg caught him, but almost fell over.
"Ungh! Hey kiddo… Man, you're getting big. I think? Maybe you're just getting stronger. Either way, it's good to see you, schtu-ball." he ruffled his son's hair, bringing a small giggle out of the young quartz.
"Greg, we appreciate you coming on such short notice." Pearl said, letting out a breath of relief. "We've had… an interesting 24 hours. We'll spare you the smaller details, but Steven made a new friend whose foster mother was a gem. We visited their old place of residence and discovered this." She popped the bubble under her arm and held out the seafoam colored instrument. "It's an instrument generated from a gem, much like my spears or Garnet's gauntlets. We were hoping that you could help us garner any information possible from this device."
Greg set Steven down and slowly took the instrument from Pearl. He was about to say something when a girl with long, dark, messy brown hair poked her head out from behind the gems and waved. "Uhh, hey. I'm Sam, the friend that Pearl is talking about."
Pearl gasped, her cheeks turning blue with her signature blush. "Oh how rude of me! Sam, I'm sorry." She took Sam's hand and brought her to the front of the gems, right in front of Greg. "Greg, this is Sam. Steven err… befriended her earlier."
Sam held up a hand to stop Pearl. "It's ok to talk about it, Pearl. Greg, your son saved my life today. I almost took it myself. Came real close to biting the big one, but your magic kiddo here was just too kind to let it happen." she smiled at Steven who smiled back, but Greg looked awful, as if he were punched in the gut.
"Oh my gosh… I recognize you. You tried to apply for a job at the carwash like a week ago… Yeah, you had a ragged Pink Floyd sweatshirt and duct tape shoes… I thought you were a junkie or something…"
Sam let out a laugh. "No sir, I'm clean as a whistle on the inside. Just homeless and hungry."
There was a pause. Silence except for the van's radio talking about someone named David coming to Beach City in two days or something. Lapis held the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. She wasn't able to handle the sheer awkwardness of the situation right now.
Greg continued to frown. "I'm so sorry, if I would have known, I would have helped you out somehow…"
Sam shushed him. "It's ok, Mr. Universe. Besides, in a way, you did help me. You're Steven's dad. If you weren't, nobody would have been able to help me. I'd still be in that alley in much worse shape. Don't beat yourself up about it. What's important is that I'm ok now. All thanks to your son."
Greg's smile formed slowly, but when it finally took shape, it was easy to tell that it was one filled with pride. He put a hand on Steven's shoulder. "Just like your mother, kiddo… Helping anyone and everyone. Doesn't matter who they are."
Everyone smiled over the tender moment. They were all truly grateful for Steven's existence. It made Pearl feel guilty that she ever wished Rose were still here instead of him. But she was better now. She couldn't bare the thought of Steven being gone.
"Alright," Greg said, determined, "as much as I enjoy a lovefest, I came here for some gem rock 'n roll!" He grabbed a cable and quickly began to look over the instrument for an output jack. He checked everywhere, even places you wouldn't expect to find one, and came up with nothing. "How do you plug it in…?" he asked. Nobody had an answer.
Garnet spoke up, however. "Well to be honest, none of us have tested it out yet. Like Pearl suggested, this is new territory for us."
Greg dropped the cable and continued to examine the thing. He figured nothing ventured, nothing gained, and strummed a C chord. This turned out to be an awful idea, as immediately, everyone except for himself and Sam doubled over in pain, clutching their gems tightly. Greg shrieked in horror and muted the strings almost instantly. Sam, who was next to Pearl at the time, helped her back up to her feet.
"Greg… Greg that was awful…" Pearl said in between pained sighs. "But it's ok!" she quickly got out before Greg's feelings were hurt. "This is why we're testing it. Maybe… Maybe it only works for gems. Oh Greg! Lets see what happens when Steven plays it! Perhaps… His gem might… Resonate with it? Garnet, help me out here."
Garnet stood back up on her own two feet and adjusted her visor. "Pearl's right… Steven is a talented musician with a Rose Quartz gem. It might be different. Let him try, Greg."
Greg had no qualms with this idea. "Hey, no need to tell me twice. This magic stuff is beyond me. I'm happy you wanted my help, but there's not much I can do without being able to get the sound into my signal chain. Here, Steven." He passed the guitar to his son, who luckily wasn't hurt too badly by the awful, distorted sound of the C chord.
Steven held the guitar warily. "Everyone get ready…" He opted for an A chord this time, though it made no difference. He and the green six string both hit the sand at the same time as all the other gems.
Lapis cried out, as she desperately reached for the teardrop on her back, "It just does that, it just does that!"
Pearl was in an equally painful state. "Ok, that's enough… I'm bubbling it again."
Steven stood up, clutching his stomach, and found that Sam had migrated over to him and was trying to help him to his feet. "Easy, easy… Steven, I have an idea. Can I give it a try?"
Everyone except Steven immediately shouted "NO." at Sam. This instrument was clearly one of only pain and they didn't want to keep going.
Sam attempted to explain, "No, wait, the Universes just played loud chords! What about melody?"
Garnet got back to her feet again and voiced her concerns. "Sam, we appreciate that this was Evie's guitar and one of the most important relics of hers that you found in that house, but this is dangerous. Anything with the power to do this shouldn't be fooled around with. We could all get seriously hurt. If the sound coming out of it matches the frequency of our gems, we could all poof. Or worse, shatter."
Sam had a rather frightened expression on her face. She didn't want that to happen to her friends. She was about to concede when Steven spoke up. He was one of the few who could go against a decision that Garnet made. "But Garnet… She's right. Dad and I just played some sloppy chords with the knobs turned up all the way. I know it's dangerous, but what if we could use it for good? What if it can help us and we just bubble it? We wouldn't know what it's capable of. We could be messing around with something awful or something great, but we won't know unless we try everything. Come on, please, Garnet?"
Garnet's gaze shifted from Sam to Steven, from Steven to the guitar, from the guitar back to Sam, and then finally back to Steven. "This is the last test." Steven shouted in victory and threw a fist in the air. "Everyone with a gem, brace yourself. Sam, please play better than those two."
Sam was unsure, but Steven's words resonated in her. What if this really was something that could be used for helping gems instead of hurting them? If it was capable of harming a gem directly, what if it could aid them somehow? They need to find out.
She put the strap around her and adjusted the volume and tone knobs. They weren't labeled, but that's what they were on every other Telecaster. She took a deep breath. "Sorry in advance if this goes wrong…" With those last few words, she began to play a slow, melodic solo piece in D major Dorian.
Every gem on the beach fell to the ground again, but none of them were screaming. They weren't in pain, and though they held their gems, they were caressing them, not clutching them. Except, of course, for Lapis, who was unable to reach hers.
Pearl's gem emitted the same kind of hologram that it would emit when she dreamt. Sam was too busy concentrating to observe it, but Greg was enraptured. The hologram showed a display of strange images that were very esoteric and abstract. He watched as the Pearl in the hologram shattered and reformed into a strange looking monster. She ran, screaming, until drained, leaving her with no choice but to rest at the mouth of a cave. And from there, she was thrown into the sky, then smashed down into the Earth, exploding, leaving only her gem. But her gem grew into a tree, from which Pearl was grown and fell back down into a giant mouth that swallowed her. When she reached the bottom of the throat, there was no stomach, just blackness. A ball of light formed and grew incredibly large, the size of a planet. If Greg had to guess, he would say it was Earth.
The Earth looked at Pearl, holding her there, asking "Wasn't that fun?" and Pearl apologized to it, saying she was sorry if she hurt anybody. But it quickly cast her into space, tearing her apart again. It said to her as her gem flew off into the cosmos, "Better luck next time, don't worry so much." Pearl reformed and ran until space turned back into solid ground and was so exhausted that she fell asleep once again at the mouth of a cave.
Before the weird dream-like sequence could continue, Sam had finished her piece. The hologram disappeared and every gem heaved a heavy sigh. They didn't need to breathe, but they couldn't help themselves. All of them had tears running down their faces. Not sad tears, not happy tears. In every meaning of the word, they were awestruck.
After a few minutes of silence, Steven started laughing. And, as Steven's laugh often does, it began to spread. Soon, everyone in front of the temple, gem or otherwise, was laughing hysterically. This continued for quite a while before dying down. Then there was a comfortable silence. It was broken by Garnet, of all gems.
"The last time I felt ecstasy like that was the first time Ruby and Sapphire fused. None of us has any idea what that was, but it can't be argued that it was a bad thing."
Pearl immediately agreed. "Absolutely… It was incredible… Did any of you get eaten and then talk to the Earth?"
Lapis answered, her voice extremely shaky, "No… No, I think each experience was unique… I danced on piano keys and melted into the wood…"
Steven didn't talk. He stayed on the ground, silently smiling. He continued caressing his gem. If one were close enough to him, they would hear him whisper, "It was nice to meet you… I love you too…" ever so quietly.
The sun had set over Beach City. Streetlights came on and the lighthouse had started spinning up. The sky was starless and covered in clouds. The only lights were from the temple and Greg's van. That was ok, it helped the gems come down from whatever it was that had overtaken them.
Sam and Greg were having a private conversation about some kind of mushroom while everyone slowly got to their feet. They hadn't talked to the gems directly during this whole strange event. They thought it might ruin the experience, whatever that experience may have been. Pearl, however, made sure to show how thankful she was for everything by holding Sam as she did once before. She hugged her new human friend and thanked her.
"Sam… I don't know what that was, but… But it was incredible… Garnet said it, that was complete ecstasy. I've never felt more amazing than I do right now, I could take on the diamonds myself!"
Steven was the next gem to join the humans. "Whoa, Pearl, let's not get carried away… Even though I feel about the same right now, let's take a minute here. What was that, anyway? Was any of that real?"
They all stared at Sam for answers, but she had none. "I'm sorry, I just know how to play the guitar. Evie isn't around to give us any info about this. But still, not such a bad thing, is it?"
Steven shook his head, smiling widely. "Not at all! I'm glad that happened. I just wish Amethyst could have been here. Hey, speaking of, where is she? And Peridot, for that matter. I haven't seen them all day…"
And just like that, the vibe was brought down. Everyone knew except Steven and Greg. Nobody wanted to say what happened. But Sam felt she owed Steven her life. The least she could do was tell him where his friends were. And she did. She told him every detail she remembered. It killed her to see Steven's face go from being so happy to completely upset.
"So they just…. Left? And they've been gone all day, and nobody went after them?" Steven wasn't about to cry. He wasn't even all that sad. He knew that Peridot and Amethyst would come back when they were ready. But he was angry. He was angry nobody told him. He was angry that they didn't trust him enough with that information. However, he loved his family too much to yell or scream at them. He knew they felt bad and he knew that they were trying to keep him happy. He couldn't stay mad at them for that.
Steven heaved a sigh and started walking inside. Everyone followed him, some beginning to apologize, but he waved them off.
"Guys, it's ok. Really. I just… I care about Amethyst and Peridot a lot. After everything with Jasper, I feel a kind of connection with them. I mean, I love all of you, but we did that together. We're the shorty squad, you know? I just… Look, it's been a crazy two days and I would really like to just relax right now. Peridot and Amethyst are probably fine, and I know we all need a minute to process what happened today. So if you don't mind, can I just take a nap?"
Pearl sighed contentedly. "Of course, Steven. Rest up. I think you're right, too. We could all use some alone time." She bubbled the guitar and sent it to the burning room as she and Garnet retreated into their respective rooms in the temple. Lapis thanked Steven and Sam for the events that took place that day before she took the warp pad back to the barn. And then it was just Sam and Steven.
A few hours went by and Sam had fallen asleep on the sofa right next to Steven's stairs. She couldn't stop being surprised by the random kindness that everyone had provided her in the past 48 hours. First, Steven saves her life, which under normal circumstances, would be crazy enough. But in addition, actual gems are just letting her couch surf in their beach house. It was all so surreal and comforting that she almost didn't wake up at the sound of the temple door opening and closing. Almost.
She stared at the and noticed a glowing pink jewel. The same color as Steven's gem. She looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was about midnight. Rubbing her eyes, she stood up and peeked over the little ledge that separated Steven's "bedroom" from the rest of the house. There was no Steven there. She had lain back down on the couch, watching the temple door. According to the clock, thirty minutes or so would pass before she saw Steven walk out of the temple, gem guitar in hand. He was about to use the warp pad when Sam spoke up.
"Steven." she said in a sing-song voice. Steven froze where he stood as the door behind him closed. She could barely make out a guilty look on his face. She sighed.
"Steven, come on, don't sneak around like this. You saved my life, I thought we were better friends than this. What's on your mind, kiddo?"
Steven didn't move from the spot he was standing in. "I uhm… Ok fine, I'm worried about Amethyst and Peridot and I want to find them but I don't know how and this guitar seems like it can do a lot of things and maybe it can help me find them please don't tell Pearl or Garnet!"
Sam processed the run on sentence that graced her ears before replying. "I'm not your moms, little dude, I'm not gonna boss you around or tell on you unless you're gonna die or something. But seriously? Last time you played that thing, gems got hurt. This isn't a good idea."
Steven sighed, knowing Sam was right. "Out of everyone here, I didn't expect you to be the one to stop me."
Sam giggled and stood up, putting on one of the pairs of boots that they found in the barn for her. "Stevo, I'm not stopping you, I'm helping you. I can show you which direction they were heading."