After the last two chapters, and some ominous mentions at the end of the last one, you're probably anxious to know what happened to Emily, on her mission, and I will get to that. Not to deliberately build up tension, but after Emily's mission, everything pretty much went to hell... Anyway, I didn't really get involved until I wrapped things up with Tyler, so I'm gonna finish that story first.
After the glow of the Warp Pad faded, Tyler and I found ourselves in Steven's house, or rather... what was left of it. The kitchen half of the house had been crushed by something enormous, metal and light blue, and a hulking, purple Gem, with a red apron and rainbow-coloured dreadlocks was strenuously pushing it out, inch by inch. She rounded on us, in reaction to the sound of the pad.
"Who are you supposed to be?" She asked, in confusion.
I was still looking around in shock, wondering what had happened. "Where's Steven? Is he okay?" I asked, nervously.
At that point, a balding man with a bad sunburn, wearing a tuxedo, came through the door, holding a one-eyed kitten. "Bismuth? What's going on?" He asked. He looked similar enough to Steven for me to safely assume that he was his dad.
"Okay, look, obviously something huge happened here, but I really don't have time for it." I said, quickly. "This is Tyler, his Gem is fractured. Please tell me Steven can fix it."
Steven's dad and the Gem (I assumed she was Bismuth) ran over urgently, to inspect the damage.
"Oh geez..." Steven's dad reacted. "Steven could probably fix that up in a jiff, but... you just missed him."
The man looked heart-broken and afraid, but Bismuth stroked her chin thoughtfully.
"So... Steven's got healing powers, like Rose, huh?" She asked.
"Yeah, why?" The man asked, noticing Bismuth's apparent lack of concern for Tyler's seemingly helpless situation.
"Well we don't need him, we can just go to the source!"
"What source?" I asked.
"Rose's tears!" Bismuth replied. "That's where the healing comes from! We got a whole fountain full of them!" She stepped onto the Warp Pad with us. "You ready?"
"Oh, hang on." I quickly pushed Veronica off the Pad and lifted Tyler off it. "Can you look after that, for me, please?" I asked Steven's dad.
"Sure thing." He enthusiastically replied.
I joined Bismuth on the Warp Pad and a moment later, we went shooting through Warp Space. When the light faded, we were in an idyllic garden. A series of tiled pathways led away from the pad, and immaculate hedges encompassed the site. Dotted around, were statues of various Gems, and shrubs, cut into the shape of Rose Quartz, who I recognised from the painting in Steven's house.
"Come on, the fountain's this way." Bismuth said, leading us through the garden. "So, are you guys new Crystal Gems? I haven't been back long. I'm still catching up."
"Oh... no. I've only met Steven and the others a few times, and Tyler just a few minutes ago. I just came to him because we're both Gem hybrids. Turns out there's a lot of us, but we don't have much of a community, until now."
"Huh..." Bismuth reacted. "So, who did that to ya, meatbag?" She asked Tyler, nodding to his Gem. "And did ya get 'em back as good as they gave?" She grinned.
"Gem Hunters..." Tyler shyly replied. "And... no... I don't know what would have happed if JJ didn't save me..."
"Gem Hunters...?" Bismuth repeated, with caution and curiosity in her voice.
Suddenly, I realised something. "I never asked. What do you want to do once we're done here, Tyler? Did the Gem Hunters take you from your dad?"
"Yeah, we live in Surf City. I don't know dad's phone number."
"Is he on Cheeper?" I asked.
"Yeah?"
I shifted Tyler over, holding him in one arm, and fished my phone out of my pocket, before unlocking it and handing it to him. "Here you go, find him and let him know you're okay, and to meet us at Beach City."
Eventually, we walked through a large, star-shaped archway, and the fountain came into view. It was gorgeous. In its centre, was a twenty-foot statue of Rose, with tears streaming from its eyes and pouring into a basin the size of a swimming pool.
"Well, there ya go, kid. That'll fix ya right up." Bismuth said.
Once he was done, I took my phone back from Tyler, and carried him towards the water, but before we were close enough to make use of it, something rose from its surface. A purple tentacle, covered in suction cups rose higher and higher above our heads, before slamming down on us. I held Tyler close and darted out of the way. The tentacle made to swing in our direction, but with a chime from her Gem, Bismuth's arm elongated, and she grabbed the tentacle at the tip.
"Oh no you don't!" Bismuth snarled.
I quickly ran to the archway we'd entered the area with and gently sat Tyler down. "Wait here, okay pal?"
I ran over, to join Bismuth.
"Tell me you got earth animals like this, nowadays." Bismuth asked, fearfully.
"No, it's a corrupted Gem, right?" I asked.
Bismuth sighed, "I was afraid of that..."
The tentacle broke free of Bismuth's grip and returned to the water. From in front of the statue, the Gem's bulbous head rose. It scowled at us with two angry eyes, between which, was a round, purple Gem. Four tentacles rose defensively into the air around it.
Bismuth groaned reluctantly. "Oh Curly... Come on man... don't make me do this..."
"Curly?" I asked. "What kind of Gem is that?"
"We had a lot of Amethysts in the rebellion." Bismuth explained. "We gave 'em nicknames."
Curly lashed out again, but I was ready. Still wearing my armour, I blasted the offending tentacle away, cutting it in two, the severed half vanishing with a flash of light, before immediately growing back. Bismuth leapt fearlessly at the Gem's head, but she was plucked out of the air, with another tentacle, and violently dunked in the water. A moment later, though, Bismuth rose from the water, furiously dragging Curly's head towards herself, by pulling the tentacle like she was climbing a rope.
Seeing my chance, I squeezed my hands together, scooped a handful of water from the fountain, and quickly but carefully ran over to Tyler.
"Okay, hold still." I warned.
I poured the water onto his Gem, and waited an agonising second, before, to my massive relief, a sparkle of light worked its way along the fractures, leaving a flawless Gem in their wake. Tyler's Gem glowed brightly, before, to my surprise and discomfort, a tiny arc of electricity jumped from it, to my hand.
"Ow!" I cried. "What was that?"
"It's... better!" Tyler gasped, feeling his Gem. "I feel better!" He joyously commented.
"Great!" I sighed in relief. "Now come on, we have to help Bismuth!"
We ran over to the side of the basin, in the middle of which, Bismuth and Curly were still wrestling, amid a frothing mass of water. "JJ, if you can get Bismuth out of the water, I can finish it off!"
I didn't know anything about Citrines, or Tyler's power, but he sounded confident enough for me to trust him. With a quick confirmation, I leapt into the fountain, and furiously swam towards the warring Gems. Between wrestling Curly aside, in my effort to reach Bismuth, and resisting the urge to say 'I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going' I was pretty much at my limit.
"Bismuth!" I cried, when I was within earshot. "Tyler says to get out of the water! He can..."
Before I could finish my sentence, a tentacle wrapped around my ankle, and dragged me to the bottom of the pool. I thrashed and struggled, swinging a boomerang in one hand, and firing my gauntlet with the other, but I was so disorientated, I didn't know which direction was up, much less which one Curly was in.
With a flash of light, which I'd later learn was Bismuth swinging a transformed limb, the tentacle holding me was severed, and I felt two much less cephalopodic arms wrap around me. Bismuth's feet hit the bottom of the basin and she leapt, exploding out of the surface of the water, and flying over the fountain, with me in her arms, feeling like a somewhat disheveled princess.
Beneath us, Tyler grinned with premature victory. He rubbed his hands together rapidly, and jolts of electricity leapt out in all directions. He plunged his hands into the water, and the entire fountain lit up like a Christmas tree, as lightning raced across the surface of the water, and over the corrupted Gem, who screeched in distress, before exploding with a puff of white smoke.
Bismuth landed on the edge of the fountain, and set me down, before reaching out with her shapeshifting powers and plucking Curly's Gem from the water. "She must have remembered that we came here to heal, when we were hurt..." She sighed. "Hang in there, buddy... We'll get you fixed right up once Steven gets back. Until then..."
The Gem lifted out of Bismuth's hand, and a lilac bubble formed around it. Bismuth tapped the top of it, and it vanished.
-x-x-x-
"You are an absolute angel! Thank you so much! Thank you!"
We'd barely got back to Steven's house, when Tyler's dad, a middle-aged man in a suit, came running up the steps. He spent several minutes hugging his son, and tearfully thanking me.
I cringed embarrassedly at the accolades. "It's fine, really, it was the only thing to do!"
"You know Tyler, I've never met a Citrine before." Bismuth grinned. "But with powers like yours, I bet you'd be welcome on the Crystal Gems, any time!"
"Really?" Tyler gasped, excitedly.
"Hey, do we have to fight over him?" I joked, elbowing Bismuth. "Us hybrids stick together, you know!"
"Can I be on both teams?" Tyler asked.
"How about we get settled down again, before you join a Gem militia?" Tyler's dad suggested, with a smirk.
"Well, either way, we should probably stay in touch." Mr Universe suggested. "I mean, if hybrids stick together, then hybrid parents probably should too, right?"
"I'd like that." Tyler's dad agreed.
After some goodbyes, Steven's dad, escorted Tyler and his dad back into town, leaving Bismuth and me alone. Her cheery demeanour darkened slightly.
"So..." She said. "Tell me about these Gem Hunters..."
"They're a group of fanatical humans who hate Gems. They were trying to cut Tyler's Gem out without killing him, and they're hellbent on destroying all Gems on earth."
"What!?" Bismuth cried. "We put our Gems on the line, protecting humans and the earth!"
"From other Gems..." I reminded her.
"Okay, fair point, but that's no reason to commit genocide!"
"Yeah, no kidding." I agreed.
"Well if there's a fight like that going on, you're crazy if you think I'm staying out of it."
I didn't object for a second. "That's great! You'd be a good fit, actually. We're pretty much just heavily armed nerds at this point."
"Well what are we standing around for? Let's go give those Gem Hunters the Bismuth!"
After we warped to Empire City, I remembered that I was cut off from Mandy and the others. I tried the earpiece again, and checked my phone, but I was unable to make contact. Feeling a flutter of anxiety, I hopped onto Veronica, and raced through the city, with Bismuth sprinting in tow.
In the car park, beneath the lab, I saw that the lights were flickering erratically, and the sliding doors to the building stuttered painfully slowly, until Bismuth forced them open.
"I haven't been in a human settlement for thousands of years, but it really looks like they should have electricity figured out by now..." She pointed out.
"Yeah, something is wrong..." I agreed.
We raced up the stairs to Peridot Lab's floor. As we approached, I saw that the door's electronic lock had been broken, and I could hear hysterical wailing coming from inside. Bismuth and I rushed in. The lab was a sight to behold. The power was out entirely, and the lab was lit by several candles and Bunsen burners. The lab monitor had shattered and most of it had fallen to the floor, and the lab's computers were in similar states of destruction.
The wailing had come from Dorothy, who was sitting in the corner, her face pressed against her knees, which she was hugging. Looking around the room, I saw that everyone was upset and in tears, except Bird Person, whose face was distorted in barely controlled rage, and the stranger who would eventually introduce herself as Sabina, who mostly just looked uncomfortable.
Emily had been leaning over the counter with her back to us when we came in, but when she turned around, I almost jumped. I don't think I'd ever seen her angry before, and I'd never seen anyone look as angry as she did. The half of her face under her eye was streaked with tears, but she was barely crying anymore. Her one eye glared, and her Gem glowed ominously in the dark.
"Jayla, finally..." She spat. "We have a lot of work to do."
"What the hell happened!?" I demanded, looking around the room. Then I did a quick headcount and my heart fell. "Wait... Where's Perry...?"