12: Shaking Hands

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After Peridot got the ship back in the air, she got up and left the control room. I followed her, wondering where she was going.

"The Gems are regaining their forms," she said, looking at her screen. Just then, we came across Jasper, who was patrolling the halls.

"Why aren't we going anywhere?" Jasper growled as Peridot fell into step beside her, deactivating her screen. "The ship should be outside the planet's atmosphere by now!"

"We can't leave yet!" Peridot said, looking up at Jasper. "The whole point of coming here was to check on the Cluster!"

We stopped in front of a cell where a Gem was standing, singing a wordless melody. Jasper punched the wall.

"Stop singing!" she snapped at the Gem, then turned to Peridot. "Rose Quartz takes priority. Get back to the bridge and set a course for Homeworld." Peridot turned and walked back the way we came, and I followed behind.

"'Go to earth,' they said," Peridot grumbled, "'It'll be easy,' they said."

We got back to the control room, where she started entering information into the system.

While Peridot got the ship started on the course to Homeworld, I watched the security monitors as Steven freed the Gems. A red Gem and a blue Gem fused, becoming Garnet.

Garnet and Steven spoke for a minute, then Steven ran off as Jasper found Garnet and the two began to fight. Strangely, Garnet was singing while she fought.

While Garnet and Jasper fought, Steven found and freed Pearl and Amethyst. Soon after, they came into the control room.

"Emerald!" Steven cried, and I turned around to face him. Peridot turned as well, standing up and grabbing a tazer from the control panel.

"Emerald betrayed you," Peridot said, smirking at Steven as his face fell. She swung the tazer and hit him with it, but he wasn't affected. He grabbed it, yanking it out of her hand and breaking it. Amethyst tied Peridot up with her whip, and Pearl came over to me, drawing her spear.

"I never betrayed the Crystal Gems," I said, dropping to my knees with my hands raised. "I let them think I did, but I could never betray my friends."

"Good," Pearl said, dismissing her spear and sitting down in Peridot's chair to maneuver the ship back down to Earth.

"Don't touch that! You clods don't know what you're doing!" Peridot cried, wriggling in her bonds.

"You got this, Pearl!" Amethyst said, giving Pearl a thumbs-up with her free hand.

"Okay, ship. Turn us around!" Pearl said, sticking her hands into the control panel. Her eyes flashed with lines of data as she started interacting with the ship. I looked back to the security monitor and saw Garnet and Jasper still fighting. Jasper dove at Garnet, causing both of them to fall through the deck and into the engine room. They continued to fight until Garnet caught Jasper and threw her into the main power source, causing it to explode. The ship rocked with the explosion, and we started rapidly falling towards earth.

Disoriented by the explosion, Amethyst let go of her whip, allowing Peridot to crawl away and activate an escape pod by slamming her face against the floor. Amethyst dove to catch the pod, but she was too late and she fell flat on the ground. We watched out the window as the ship continued freefall, and Garnet entered the room.

"Garnet!" Pearl, Amethyst, and Steven cried in unison.

"This ship is going down!" Garnet said, and I rolled my eyes at the obviousness of her statement.

"What about Lapis?" Steven asked.

"There's no time!" Garnet answered.

The ship came to rest on the side of the hill containing the Temple, then exploded. Luckily, Steven had enclosed us in his bubble right before the explosion, protecting us. Lion blasted the rubble, allowing Steven to disperse the bubble.

"Nice one," Garnet said to Steven, who turned to her in awe.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe you're a fusion all the time!" he gushed excitedly.

"You met Ruby and Sapphire?!" Amethyst asked, and Pearl's face fell.

"Oh no! We were going to introduce you," Pearl said, "Garnet, your plan!"

"We were waiting for your birthday," Garnet told Steven, who got more excited.

"We can still do it!" he said. "I'll just pretend I didn't know!"

Amethyst chuckled, and a hand reached up through the rubble. Jasper climbed out from the burning wreckage of the ship.

"Ugh! Ahh..." she fell to her knees "Don't think you've won. You only beat me cause you're a fusion! If I had someone to fuse with, I'd-" The rubble shifted, and Lapis emerged, attempting to flee. "Come here, brat! Ah, don't fly off so soon."

"Lapis!" Steven cried, attempting to run over to her, but Pearl and Amethyst stopped him.

"Lapis, listen, fuse with me!" Jasper said.

"What?!" Lapis asked, shocked.

"How long did they keep you trapped here on this miserable hunk of rock?" Jasper asked, dropping Lapis. "These Gems, they're traitors to their Homeworld. They kept you prisoner. They used you. This is your chance to take revenge! Come on, just say yes."

"Lapis, don't do it!" Steven cried. Lapis offered her hand to Jasper, who took it with an evil grin. They danced, fusing into a monstrous green being. The fusion had six arms and no legs, instead using the bottom two pairs of arms as legs.

The fusion cackled, raising her arm and summoning a water arm from the ocean. Suddenly, the water arm grabbed her arm and became a shackle.

"Huh?" the fusion questioned as another arm came from the ocean, taking her other arm and forming another shackle. "What?" Water chains appeared, wrapping around her torso and neck. "Ughh!" The water started dragging her into the ocean.

"What are you doing?" the fusion asked in Jasper's voice.

"I'm done being everyone's prisoner. Now you're my prisoner!" Lapis' voice replied. "And I'm never letting you go!"

Two more water-arms came up and grabbed the fusion's back leg-arms, pulling her into the water until only her head was visible. Her face briefly split into Lapis and Jasper's faces, but pulled back together.

"Let's stay on this miserable planet... together!" Lapis' voice cried, and the fusion disappeared into the ocean.

"Yikes. They are really bad for each other," Garnet said, and Steven's phone started ringing.

"Um... Hello?" Steven answered the phone.