Here we go - The Finale to the Era 4 Arc and Shadows Arising!
Chapter 21; In The Final
As they stood outside of the menacing robotic Head Ship, they could all already feel the darkness pouring out from the inside, the power of the Dark Gem affecting them.
"This is it" Steven was facing his friends and brother. "Once we go in, there's no coming back out until we've freed everyone!" with these words, they all grabbed Steven and he hopped up to the open eye. One by one, they slid through it, Keifer landing first in a roll, followed by Connie landing, then Pink Pearl and finally Steven in the front.
"So it comes to this" the gem stood there, seemingly much taller than before, exceeding White Diamond. "I, black Diamond, shall end you here!" that's when she broke apart into four, shadowy clones of the group.
Cue; Adventure's End - Dream Team
"Don't let them split us apart!" Keifer was in front now, sparring with his clone before getting hit with the flat of his own shadowy blade, flying into the wall. Steven and Connie rushed their foes while the Pink Pearls began fighting. Keifer decided to grow giant and his shadow self did the same, both swinging furiously at each other, their cleavers making earth-shattering strikes.
"Is that all you got!?" Black Diamond laughed through the clones as the fight kept going. Keifer managed to cut his shadow clone clean in half, causing it to go slamming through White Diamond's newly built throne, shattering it to thousands of pieces. As he shrunk,Pink Pearl kept fighting her shadow clone. She suddenly saw an opening an ran her spear through it,while at the same moment, Steven and Connie fused and defeated their opponents.
"This isn't over yet!" Black Diamond laughed as she reappeared. "In fact, this has only just began!" the four grouped together and watched as a shadow orb came down from the ceiling,revealing...
"Marcus, you son of a...!" Keifer was lost for words as suddenly,darkness began billowing from around Black Diamond, turning into a twister. Marcus began laughing.
"It's time I got my revenge! You ruined my life, but Black Diamond promised me greatness!" he leapt into the dark twister and there was a bright, sickening flash.
Cue - Final Battle - Paper Jam
As the dark twister faded, there stood an amalgamation of what could only be called nightmares. The beast was much taller than White Diamond AND Giant Keifer put together, it had five eyes, each glowing gray. It had 4 arms, and it's legs were seemingly made of shadows - almost its' entire body was.
"I created this Universe - I created the Diamonds. They have failed me. It is time I reset things back to the start!" the beast roared, blowing everyone through the now broken Head Ship, along with all the bubbled gems, which were now scattered about, floating behind the group. "And with this world, you shall all perish!"
"Not today!" Steven was in front now, standing up to the definition of a nightmare. "We'll save the Universe - we'll beat you no matter what it takes!" The Beast roared, laughing manically.
"Then show me what you can do, boy of the Universe!" she swiped at him, and Steven leapt out of the way.
"Let's fuse!" Pink Pearl spoke up quickly as the beast began throwing Shadow Orbs at them. "WE need to be bigger than Giant Keifer- it's the only way!" together, they all four grabbed each other and Steven quickly summoned his shield.
"You hope to gain an advantage?" the voice coming from the beast distinctly sounded like Marcus now. there, much taller than Giant Keifer, stood a new fusion. It bore 8 eyes, an insane mixed hair style, it's hair like a flowing rainbow, 6 arms, and Rainbow Attire.
"No - we hope to DESTROY you!" Keifer spoke through the fusion.
"We, Rainbow Diamond, will defeat you!" Steven could be heard through the steel, angry voice. As Dark Diamond began summoning a Dark Orb seemingly larger than a Super-Nova, the fusion began forming its' weapon. It wasn't a sword, nor a shield. But rather, both. As Dark Diamond launched her attack, Rainbow Diamond deflected it, their shield bouncing it right back.
"Pathetic!" Black Diamond spoke through the beast and began launching volley after volley of attacks at them,all of which, were deflected by the Rainbow Sword-Shield that Rainbow Diamond held. That's when they attacked, launching themselves at the beast. They began pummeling it to an fro, using all of their combined strength. With one final blow, they ran their ultimate weapon through it.
"You think that HURT?" Dark Diamond knocked them off hard, causing the fusion to fall apart. Tired and weak, they all struggled to stand up, just one small blow away from pure exhaustion.
"N...no..." Keifer drew his sword. "No matter... no matter how much... it hurts me... you WON'T HURT ANYONE ANYMORE!" calling upon all the power in his gem, the glow coming from him brighter than a supernova. His entire body was engulfed in light now. "YOU'VE LOST!" He began seemingly glowing, until Connie realized he was creating something above him.
"He's going to if we don't help him!" Pink Pearl began running towards him. "We need to help him - reach deep inside yourself and call upon your light!" she too began fully glowing, now next to Keifer.
"This is for my family and friends!" Steven yelled out, now engulfed in light.
"This is for what you did to ME!" Connie too now joined in and the Orb of Pure Light was beginning to out-grow Dark Diamond,
"What?" Dark Diamond was astounded - it couldn't call upon any of its' power suddenly.
"THIS IS YOUR END!" Keifer roared out, loud enough to be heard from across the Cosmos, and together, he, Pink Pearl, Connie and Steven let go of the blast, the Universe itself shaking.
XxXxXxXxXxX (End Music)
It was over. The four exhausted friends watched as the orb dissipated, and in its' wake nothing, aside from a few shards and the boy of a now dead Marcus lie there.
"We did it..." Steven was almost too exhausted to speak as one by one all the bubbles behind them began popping. Steven and his friends walked up to the massive crater. Slowly, they bubbled away the shards of Black Diamond. And finally, all four of them stood over the body of Marcus.
"I know what he did was bad but..." Connie was lost for words as she spoke.
"Did he deserve death?" Pink Pearl was next to her now.
"Let's bubble him-we can give him a proper funeral back home. Because now I'm sure that Black Diamond was somehow controlling him a long time ago..." Keifer walked up to the boys body. With all of their remaining strength, they bubbled him and sent him back to Earth before collapsing, the Shadow over the universe slowly fading away.
XxXxXxX
As he sat up, Steven's head hurt. He looked around and noticed the others were beginning to sit up as well. They weren't in the crater anymore.
"BOYS!" suddenly, Keifer and Steven were tackled into a hug by Greg, along with Rose, who was Pink Diamond at the moment.
"Dad...!" Steven teared up into his father's shoulder and Keifer did the same into his mother's.
"So you all pulled through" White Diamond was standing over-top them now, looking at the four of them. Connie nodded.
"Black Diamond... what happened to her?" Yellow rubbed her head as she leaned on the wall next to them. Keifer sighed and let goof his mom as Blue walked over, along with the Crystal Gems.
"She's gone..." Keifer looked down and pulled out the one shard he hadn't bubbled. The four Diamonds solemnly nodded. White took the shard from him and bubbled it away and they all just stood there.
"You four saved the Universe" blue spoke. "Black Diamond was bent on destroying her own creation, but you four prevented it"
"I guess we did" Pink Pearl was next to Keifer now and Connie stood next to Steven.
"Mom... we kinda trashed your legs..." Keifer chuckled nervously as they recounted the events of everything leading up to then, everyone taking it in, including all of the gems who had been bubbled, which was pretty much every gem who'd been on Earth and on Homeworld.
"So you all fused?" Garnet asked them, to which Keifer simply smiled. He grabbed Pink Pearl who smiled as they formed Sun Pearl. Steven and Connie follow suit and formed Stevonnie. Everyone in the room watched on as the two began happily spinning around with each other before forming Rainbow Diamond again.
"But even together as this we couldn't win" Steven spoke through the fusion, which some-what put White Diamond off, as it was taller than her.
"That was until we split apart and used our remaining strength" the Fusion broke apart and Keifer was speaking again.
"Together, we defeated Dark Diamond" Pink Pearl said.
"And we saved the Universe!" everyone cheered as Connie said this. Their four names were chanted as the two couples stood there. The cheering grew even louder as Steven and Connie kissed while Pink Pearl and Keifer did as well.
XxXxXxXxX
They all waved bye as the Eye Ship began flying back to Earth. A lot of gems had to shrink down or they agreed to be bubbled as the Ship went nearly top speed towards Earth.
"What do you think everyone back home's gonna say?" Keifer spoke up as the Earth was in sight.
"Who knows?" Steven chuckled tiredly as he rubbed his eyes.
"Well I think I do!" Greg was looking out the large window on the front as they began descending on the Beach. Almost everyone was there, including many from School cheering for the four saviors of the Universe.
"Guys!" Zane ran up to Steven and his three friends as they stepped onto the beach. "You saved literally everyone!All I remember was a bright flash and then waking up. I knew you had something to do with fixing everything!"
"That we did" Pink Pearl spoke happily.
"Ya know what?" Connie was speaking now. "Let's party!"