Will Lapis be okay? I'm rushing this chapter bc it's late and bc I have a huge test tomorrow in foreign language. So that's why it's so short. The prime kindergarten control room was seen in the episode "keeping it together".
Steven was lying down in the shallow water of the cave, thinking about what had just happened. Amethyst was standing at the cave entrance, looking over the surrounding mountains. Peridot was drawing in the dirt.
"Ugh! How could they hurt Lapis like this, and then expect me to lovingly run into their arms?" I yelled. Amethyst walked over to me. "Steven, it's going to be okay…" I look away. "Not for Lapis." I say. Amethyst winces. "Yeah, her end of the deal sucks. I don't know how they could do that… We don't even know what they'll do to her even if you agree to their demands. We have no clue as to whether they even have the antidote." She says. Peridot walks over, and says "Well, then why don't we just make our own antidote, and when Steven goes there, he can just give it to her himself?" I gasp, and reply "Peridot, that's a great idea! What's the antidote made of?" She looks away. "The hardest ingredient to get will be the powdered gem…" Amethyst gasps. "You mean to say that we'll have to get part of a gem to cure her?" Peridot nods. I sigh, and say "We have to help Lapis, no matter what. If this antidote is really that hard to make, then the chances are that the gems don't have it either. But where are we going to get an old gem to use?" Peridot rubs her shoulder. "We could go to the Kindergarten." I nod. "Whatever it takes."
"Come on, Lazuli." Garnet says to me. She's dragged me all this way, and now my legs are covered in scratches, and the hem of my skirt is torn. The poison hurts a lot more than that, though. Garnet opens the temple door, and throws me inside. "Don't worry, every day we'll come back. Some days we'll give you more poison, other days we'll just use our weapons, and maybe sometimes we'll just hurt you with our words." Garnet says, as she smirks. I can't live through this. This is pure torture, and I hate every second of it. If I ever get out of this state, then I don't ever think I'll be the same. She closes the door, leaving me alone. I look around the room as best I can. It's a room filled with clutter and purple crystals. This must have been Amethyst's room. I lay in the room, alone with my pain and thoughts.
We've warped into the Kindergarten, and it doesn't look any different from the last time I was here. Except that Lapis was with us last time. She's struggled through so much… She doesn't deserve it. Amethyst must see how I feel, because she ruffles my hair. "It's going to be okay, Steven." She says. I nod, and look at Peridot. "How long will it take to prepare the antidote?" I ask. She considers this, and then replies "About two weeks. And that's IF we find a gem shard here." I take a step forward. "We have to. It's not an option." I say. Peridot walks forwards. "There should be an elevator in about fifty feet that will take us down to where some of the… earlier gem shard fusion experiments are." She says. I find the elevator, and press the button to go down. As we travel further down, it seems to get… creepier. The elevator stops, and Peridot proclaims "We're here. Welcome to the Prime Kindergarten Control Room."
The room is dark green, and I notice circles in the ceiling. I'm about to say something about that, but Peridot beats me to it. "I need you to pull out one of those tubes from the ceiling. Inside of them are the gem shard fusions." Amethyst nods, and starts whipping at one of the circles. It dislodges, and falls to the ground. Out falls a fusion of seven arms, all different colors. Amethyst winces at the sight of it. She looks away as she attacks it with her whip. Amethyst bubbles six of the shards, but she picks a red one to hand to Peridot. "Here you go, dude. Now let's go home. This place is giving me the creeps."
"Oh, come on Lapis, I know you're not asleep. You can't sleep when you're poisoned. Now look at me." Pearl prods me with her foot. She gives a single laugh. "Oh that's right. You can't move. Silly me." She says. She's just playing with me. She goes to my other side, where I can see her. "Now, let's see. What should we do today? I know! Let's talk about what a horrible person you are!" She cheerfully says. I try to turn over, but I can't. I can't even close my eyes. This is horrible, I can't take it. "Let's see; you stole Steven from his childhood home, you nearly killed him multiple times, you almost let him starve to death, you let yourself get hurt bad enough so that he had to protect you, when it should've been the other way around, you've isolated him so that he only has one friend, and then you took him away from her, too. He's been put through so much at only fourteen years old, and it's all your fault. Oh, and when he was starving, you were wallowing in your own self-pity! Wow, when you add it all up, you really are a horrible person!" she says, and on her last two words, she kicks me in the stomach. I can't fight back, and I can't leave. Tears are spilling down my face. She smiles, knowing that she is getting to me, that she has gotten to me. "Oh, and he had to carry you because you were struggling with this-" And at those words, she traces her finger down my scar. I hate her. "Oh yes, I know that you are extremely self-conscious about that. Let's see if we can root out any new weaknesses while we're at this, shall we?" she says. I try my hardest to talk, tears spilling down my face. "Stop… reminding me… about everything I… HATE… about… myself…" She laughs. "Oh, I can't do that; we're just getting started!" She sits down and makes herself comfortable. This is going to last a while. I don't think that I'll survive…