Chapter Thirteen: Watching
Lapis moved swiftly, her hydrokinesis propelling her neatly through the ocean's waves. She passed fish and kelp and other hallmarks of the Earth's oceans, before beginning to slow. She moved to the surface and as predicted, the shore was in view now. And on that shore was the unmistakable structure that the Crystal Gems made their base in.
Lapis had come in order to scope out the area and maybe see what they were doing to Steven. Pearl had feared there would be little hope; that the Crystal Gems would be keeping him locked inside their base, far beyond their reach. But luck seemed to be on her side, for there were two figures at the edge of the water; Steven and the Pearl.
The other Pearl, Lapis scowled. She wasn't anything like the Pearl that Lapis had come to know. The way she spoke so kindly or knew when to offer a reassuring hand on her shoulder, or the way her hair fell just so and it looked so lovely…
Lapis shook her head, pushing that line of thought away. She needed to keep focused. She ducked back under the waves and swam closer, peeking only enough to see over the waves.
Both Steven and the other Pearl were there. Steven was doing… something, though Lapis wasn't sure what exactly. Though it must have been important, with the look of concentration on Steven's face. Which made the look of impatience clearly plastered on the Pearl's all the more frustrating.
Lapis gritted her teeth as she felt energy begin to gather in her gem. She wanted to summon her wings. They had been a hard won victory and now she could put them to use, swooping over and grabbing Steven before Other Pearl could do anything about it.
But…
Lapis knew that was a stupid plan, even without Pearl telling her so. The Crystal Gems knew where the Palanquin was now. And if she snatched Steven, they would probably be at the Palanquin before Lapis could be back with Steven. And Pearl would be there, defenseless…
And there was Greg, of course. The Crystal Gems would surely exact retaliation on him as well. Granted, Lapis was fairly indifferent to the human, but Steven cared for him. Plus he had helped them track down the Fountain to heal her gem, even if that trip was the source of all this.
A physical wave hit Lapis just as a very familiar one of guilt washed over her. Steven seemed to be finishing whatever he was doing and after a moment, Pearl beckoned him to follow her back towards the rebel base.
To his prison.
It would have been so easy, to just crush the Pearl then and there.
Grimacing, Lapis flicked her wrist and sent a wave to shore, but this one was perfectly aimed and sized, hitting the other Pearl and making her stumble, but keeping Steven completely dry.
Lapis found herself smirking with devilish delight as the other Pearl began fuming at her now soaked form. Lapis had to resist the urge to move forward and try to get an earful of her rage.
Instead, she ducked back beneath the waves and began swimming away. There didn't seem to be much in the way of defenses around the rebel's base, save for a chainlink fence. And that would hardly stop their plans.
Lapis found herself smirking to herself again.
She and Pearl had planning to do.
It had been nearly two days since he'd been captured by the Crystal Gems, and Steven was not a fan.
At least I'm not dead, Steven reflected, as played idly with the strings of his hoodie. Or being tortured.
Or maybe he was being tortured. Of boredom.
In between runs for food, Dad had done what he could to keep Steven entertained. They'd gotten out a pack of cards and played with those, although there weren't many good games that could only be done with two. They'd told each other jokes and riddles, and played Eye Spy, and Twenty Questions, and Never Would I Ever. Dad had gotten out his guitar, and Steven had sung along, even if he did get embarrassed about how he sounded in comparison to his awesome, rock-star father.
It reminded Steven of the days when they'd been lived in the apartment, and been able to just hang out together. It all would've been really nice, actually, if there hadn't always been at least one Crystal Gem standing there, silently judging.
But there were way more things to do in an apartment than a cage. Especially when you could leave the apartment to go places. Already it felt like they were running out of activities, and Steven would have to spend the rest of his life like this.
No, I'm not. I'm gonna find a way out of here. Somehow.
Steven looked up from his sketchbook, to where Dad was splayed out on the blankets, napping. Steven considered joining him— the warp lag pulled at his eyes, tempting him to sleep. Except he was working on his drawing, and he didn't want to waste the daylight, because he wouldn't be able to see well enough to finish it if he woke up in the middle of the night.
That was the idea, at least, but Steven found he didn't have much enthusiasm for drawing, after all. He kept starting a sketch, then stopping, not sure how he wanted it to continue. Or... no, he knew exactly how. He just, well... He'd already filled three full pages of the book, and ripped one out for the letter he'd written Pearl and Lapis (he sure hoped that Rose Quartz wasn't lying about having delivered it). There were only another twenty-six pages left. If he filled them all out, then…
Steven squeezed his eyes shut, pretending it was just because of exhaustion. Maybe he should sleep after all.
He laid down, and tried to let his mind go blank.
He was just beginning to succeed, when the sound of laughter pierced through the air, disturbing him.
"Oh, come on," he grumbled, opening his eyes.
He immediately could tell something was wrong. Just minutes before, the cave had been filled with rich, afternoon sunlight. Now the quality of the light was completely different. Paler, greyer. The wind that blew from the entrance felt chillier, too. And both Dad and the cage had vanished completely.
Steven recognised the signs. This was a Vision.
He sat up, instantly alert, and the laughter came again, clearer this time. He recognised it as belonging to Amethyst. Her voice echoed up from the beach as she approached. "And did ya see my splash?"
"I did!" That was Rose Quartz's voice, bubbling up with laughter. "It was astounding."
"It was certainly very large," said the final voice, the other Pearl's, as the three Crystal Gems appeared in the cave's entrance. They were all dripping wet.
They were still immediately recognisable as their modern counterparts. However, aside from Rose Quartz, who still wore that same simple white dress, the other two looked quite different. The Pearl's outfit looked antiquated, in a general sense— Steven couldn't pin the historical period or culture down precisely, but the way her shirt hung like a toga felt vaguely mediterranean. The Amethyst, in comparison, looked oddly stiff and formal. Her hair was cropped short, and it looked like she was wearing some sort of military uniform. There was even a diamond insignia on her chest.
This must be right after she first deserted, Steven thought. He stepped forward to get a closer look, but was mindful not to go too far. His body was still in the present, and if he walked into the cage, that would probably be enough to knock him out of the vision.
"Pearl, what were those animals again?" Amethyst asked, as she walked right past Steven. "The ones who see with sounds?"
"Those were whales. Although they don't see with sound, precisely— that's just a metaphor. It's called 'echolocation'. Some Gems are capable of the same thing. They send off sound waves, and when the waves hit a physical object, they bounce back, which…"
The Pearl trailed off. She seemed to be staring at Rose Quartz, for some reason. Steven wasn't sure why. The fearsome warrior wasn't doing anything but wringing out her hair.
"Pearl?" Amethyst tugged on her shirt. "What'cha looking at, Pearl?"
"Ah, well..." The Pearl's face turned blue. "Just at Rose."
Amethyst looked from Pearl, to Rose Quartz, and tilted her yeah. "Yeah. Rose's hair looks pretty funny."
It did look pretty funny, Steven had to agree. When it was dry, her curls looked like something out of a fairy tale, but when wet, it was just like a giant pink mop.
If possible, the Pearl's face went even bluer.
Rose Quartz giggled, and gave the Pearl a wink. It was weird, seeing the murderer acting so playful. In response, the Pearl smiled, and that was weird too, how the expression made her face seem so much softer.
The moment passed when Amethyst tugged on the Pearl's shirt again, and then climbed up at her. The Pearl's eyes went wide in surprise— then her smiled shifted, as she allowed Amethyst to come and rest in her arms. Amethyst said, "Can you finish telling me the thing about the whales?"
"Of course," the Pearl began, coughing to clear her throat. "As I was saying…"
She barely got two sentences into her lecture before she stopped again, this time by the warp pad activating. Steven spun to see the fusion having arrived, some sort of golden artifact under her arm—
"Garnet! Garnet!" Amethyst cried, springing from the Pearl's arms. "You're back! I went swimming, Garnet! You shoulda seen me—"
"Steven Universe," Rose Quartz said, and Steven jumped.
But it wasn't the Rose Quartz from the vision, of course. It was the Rose Quartz of the present. She'd called out to him, and his body had heard, and now the Vision had faded. He scowled.
"What?" he asked the rebel leader.
Rose Quartz just smiled, as if she didn't even notice his annoyance. "You had simply been looking around quite oddly. I wanted to make sure you were alright."
"Oh, yeah. I'm doing just great," Steven drawled.
"Ah, I am glad."
Steven turned away, so that she wouldn't see him roll his eyes. He might be her prisoner, but that didn't mean he wanted to small talk with a killer.
He didn't really want to see Visions of that killer, either. Especially not ones where she went on beach trips, and joked with fellow traitors, and acted so happy, as if she'd never done anything wrong. It made his stomach flip. Still. Maybe if he got more of those Visions, he'd See something. Something that he could use against the Crystal Gems.
Steven laid back down, closed his eyes, and tried again.
"Ah, man! This is gonna rock!"
Amethyst walked towards the warehouse, Connie right beside her. It had been longer than Amethyst could remember when she'd last been this excited. Wrestle-Mania was already such a riot, but now she was here with Connie. This was going to be a great night.
Connie smirked at her, "Was that a pun?"
Amethyst blinked. "A pun? Whaddya mean?"
"You said this is going to rock," Connie explained. "And you're, ya know. A magic space rock."
"Ohhh," Amethyst laughed. "Yeah, exactly. We're really gonna rock now!"
"Easy, you two. Wait up for me."
Connie sighed as her dad, Doug, straddled up to them, straightening his glasses as he did. According to Connie, the only way that her parents would let her out after her curfew was if she had one of them accompanying them. Though it was pretty obvious to Amethyst that Connie wasn't happy about it, Amethyst herself didn't really care. Besides, the more the merrier. Amethyst honestly just wanted to get away from the Temple for a while. And hanging with Connie was a great way to that, even with her dad in tow.
"So, Amethyst," Doug said as they walked through the warehouse doors, greeted by the excited cheering and chatter of humans. The ring was already set up, although nobody was out there yet. That was good. Meant that the show was just about to start. "Have you been to many of these events before?"
"Oh, yeah," Amethyst answered, leading them over to the front row seats. These were perfect. Maybe Amethyst could get another tooth. "These are great. Lotsa fun."
"Well that's good," Doug said, clapping his hands together as he took his seat next to Connie. "Are you excited, dear?"
" Yes, Dad. " Connie leaned over to Amethyst and whispered, "I'm sorry, Amethyst. I was holding out hope it would just be the two of us."
"Connie," Doug said, his face instantly dropping into a hurt grimace. "I can't believe you wouldn't want me to share this with my only daughter. I am hurt."
Connie's eyes grew wide in surprise. "N-no! That's not what I meant, Dad! I just—"
Doug began laughing as he got up, "It's okay, sweetie. Calm down. Here, that popcorn's calling my name." He pointed the manned cart near the entrance. "You two want anything?"
"No, I'm okay, Dad."
"Sure, I'll go for some, dude!"
"Cool," Doug said, pointing a pair of finger guns at Amethyst. "I'll be right back."
Connie looked behind them at Doug, before turning towards Amethyst. "Dad really seems to like you, Amethyst."
"Yeah?"
Connie nodded. "Sure. I mean, Dad's always kinda like this, but still. He was really eager to come. Mom could barely protest."
"Heh, well, who wouldn't want to come out with us?" Amethyst shrugged nonchalantly. "We're just two cool gals out on the town."
Connie smiled brightly. "Yeah, we are. Just the two of us. And my dad."
"Every group needs a straight man," Amethyst said. "For me and the Gems, it's Pearl. And for us, it can be your dad."
Honestly, Amethyst had wanted Pearl to come. She'd invited her— she was sure that wrestling would be right up her alley, if only she'd give it a try. Fighting, ridiculous costumes, over-the-top drama... It just oozed Pearl.
But nooooo. Pearl had all been like, "I've got to watch the Diamond." That was all she and the others talked about these days. It had been fun at first, finally getting to see a Diamond up close and personal, but now Amethyst was getting really sick of the whole thing. Guard duty was boring, and it was… worrying, the way Rose and Garnet and Pearl kept having these talks when they thought Amethyst wasn't around.
Connie smiled, before looking away. She looked directly at the ring as she spoke, "Have you ever come to Wrestle-Mania with one of the other Gems?"
"Once," Amethyst said. "Wasn't much fun, though. Pearl didn't 'get it', Rose kept trying to climb into the ring to heal everyone after every match, and Garnet always knew who was going to win." Amethyst blew a raspberry through her lips. "Just… bleh."
Before Connie could respond, Doug returned with two bags of popcorn in tow. "I didn't miss anything, did I?" He took his seat and passed one of the bags to Amethyst and placed the other in his lap.
"Nah, you're good," Amethyst responded, eating a fistful of the popcorn. "I'm excited. Things are gonna be starting soon."
"Well, hi excited. I'm Doug."
There was a pause, as if everything around them grew quiet. Connie buried her rapidly reddening face in her hands and let out a muffled moan. "Daaaad."
However Amethyst just let out a thunderous roar of laughter. "Oh man, that's perfect. 'I'm excited', that's hilarious." Amethyst doubled over in her seat, nearly dropping her popcorn as she laughed so hard, others around them began to look over and make sure everything was okay.
"Well, now. It's good to know you have only the highest quality sense of humor, Amethyst," Doug said, looking more than a little proud of himself.
Connie only continued to look at Amethyst, a lopsided grin on her face. "I think Dad may have found his ideal audience."
Amethyst was about to say that she'd be willing to listen to any jokes he had, if they were as good as that one, but she was cut off by the sound of a tinny jingle. At first Amethyst didn't know where it was coming from and was about to ask as much, but then she remembered her escapades a few days before. She reached down the neck of her shirt and removed the cellphone hidden there. "I thought you didn't have a cellphone, Amethyst?" Connie asked.
"I don't," Amethyst answered, pressing her finger down on the screen of Mr. Universe's phone. She then put the phone near her mouth and yelled, " We won't tell ya nothin', Homeworld scum! " and then promptly hung up, sticking the phone back in place.
"Uh, who was that?" Doug asked.
"I dunno. No one good, though."
The lights started to dim around them and focus on the stage. Wrestle-Mania's host got up to the center and roared into the mic:
"Allllrright, folks! Are all of you ready to get this show on the road?!"
The crowd roared in response. Amethyst got to her feet to cheer, Connie getting up after her to join in.
"Then let's starting getting out first fighters for the night hyped up! Give it up for Shark-O-Mania and Concrete Heat!"
"...and then the way he jumped off the ropes and landed right on him!" Amethyst slapped the palms of her hands together for emphasis.
Connie nodded, still grinning. "Yeah! And then when Sea Wasp grabbed Concrete Heat and dragged him out the ring, I thought it was all over!"
Doug sighed, before laughing wearily. "It was certainly an event," he said, rubbing his forehead. "Though I think I might have gotten hit with a tooth…"
"I know! That's the best part!" Amethyst declared. "Shoulda tried to keep it."
"Right." They came to the road, packed as it was with people and cars trying to leave. "You two stay here and I'll go get the car and bring it around." Doug pushed his way through the crowd and soon disappeared from sight. Amethyst shifted in place for a while before she sat down on the grass at the edge of the road. Connie sat down next to her.
"Man," Amethyst sighed. "Tonight was great, dude. Really nice to take a load off, ya know?"
Connie nodded. "Anything… you wanna talk about?"
Amethyst chuckled. "Why? Wanting to know more cool Gem secrets?"
"Sort of," Connie admitted, also chuckling. "I was sorta wondering why you wouldn't let me come up on the beach tonight. But if you need to get some things off your mind…"
Amethyst was silent for a moment. "Eh, it's nothing big. Just Crystal Gem stuff." She started absentmindedly picking at the grass in front of her. "We got a prisoner at the Temple, but they're no ordinary prisoner. They're a Diamond. One of the leaders of Homeworld."
"Really?" Connie gasped. "So, you've basically got like a space queen locked up at your Temple right now?"
"Basically," Amethyst responded. "She thought she was hot stuff. But we smacked her back down into place though, and she ain't ever gonna hurt anyone ever again." Amethyst grinned broadly.
"Wow. That's pretty impressive."
"I guess," Amethyst shrugged. "After all, I'm here. Not much a Diamond can do to me. Cause I'm so awesome."
Connie grinned slyly. "Is that so?"
"Well duh. I mean, I wasn't with Garnet when she captured Blue Diamond," Amethyst said. "But I made sure to look really big and imposing when she was brought back."
Connie let out an amused snort, but quickly stopped when she saw how Amethyst was avoiding her gaze.. "And… that's all?"
"What else is there?"
"You have talked to the other Gems, right?" Connie asked.
Amethyst shrugged again. "Yeah. I mean… I guess." She brushed all the bits of picked grass from in front of her. "I did my thing. Not really much else for me to do."
Connie however seemed upset by Amethyst's answer. "That's not true! You're a Crystal Gem too! You have just as much say as they do."
"Well, yeah. But—"
"But nothing. You have your opinions, you should make sure they hear them!" Connie said. "Trust me. Fading into the background can be… disheartening after a while."
Amethyst blinked at her, as she mulled over what Connie had said. It made sense, and Amethyst did have opinions, at the very least. Like how she still didn't think this Diamond was anything like what the others had told her about. And Connie was super smart and hadn't steered her wrong yet.
"Alright, dude. I'll… talk it over with them. When I get a chance."
Connie smiled and nodded. "Good. I'm glad."
"Ya know, Connie? You're pretty cool."
Connie's face began to flush as she looked down at her hands. "Oh, well… Um, thanks, Amethyst…"
Doug pulled up in his car, the front window rolled down. "Get in, you two. We're heading out."
Amethyst and Connie did so, sliding into the backseat and buckling their seatbelts. The car began to drive off and Amethyst glanced over at Connie, who was idly tracing over the area where her finger had been. Amethyst smiled, a little bittersweetly.
"Seriously, dude," she said, putting a hand on Connie's shoulder. "You are, like, one of the coolest people I've ever met. Definitely the coolest human. I'm super glad I saved your life and stuff."
Connie smiled back at her. "Yeah. Me too, Amethyst. I'm glad you saved my life too."
The two laughed together all the way back to the Temple.