Sorry for the lack of an update to this story (bows head in shame). I've been busy with my Gaming channel on YouTube and work. With those going on, I honestly forgot about this story completely. I'll try to focus on it a bit more and not have you guys wait a year for the next chapter. Honestly, I hope you for can forgive me for that and not spam the hate in the reviews (I'd rather you PM me the hate if you have any). Anyway, enjoy the chapter folks!
Chapter 25
It Could've Been Great
The sun was setting and the gang was enjoying the break that they've decided to take from the drill. Everyone seemed relaxed except for Peridot, who was getting annoyed at everyone because they weren't helping her at the moment. It has been 2 days since the incident between Peridot and Amethyst and a day since Steven's Birthday, which ended up with Steven reverting into his baby form. That was hectic to figure out how and why that happened.
To make a long story short, his dad showed Connie a couple of photos of Steven through an album book and Steven noticed that he hasn't changed much since the age of 8. Jet assured Steven that his change will come in due time and that he shouldn't rush the process. Steven didn't listen and ended up stretching his body for the remainder of the day. The excessive use of his stretching was more than what he could handle and it ended up reverting him to infant form. He was back to himself the following day though.
Currently now, the gang (including Lion) was enjoying the sunset as they were sitting on the grass near the barn. Jet leaned back and closed his eyes. Everything just felt so right at the moment, the wind letting off a gentle breeze, the birds chirping as they made their way home and the soft sounds that were coming from the ukulele that Steven was playing with. Peridot couldn't take how calm everyone was.
"Steven." Peridot said, getting his attention.
"Hi." Steven said, leaning on Lion, who had his eyes closed at the moment.
"Why did we stop working on the drill?" She asked, pointing towards it. "Why are they just sitting there looking at nothing." She then pointed to Jet and the others, who were still enjoying the moment and tuning her out.
"We worked hard and deserved to take it easy for a little bit." Steven said, as he continued to play his ukulele. "I mean, just look at that view!" Steven turned his head to look at the sunset and Peridot looked at it as well. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"
"It's going to be blown to oblivion if we don't get back to work!" She yelled at him.
"Working hard is important, but feeling good is important to." Steven said, causing Peridot to slightly growl.
"What are you talking about?!" She yelled. Steven smiled at her and continued to play his instrument. Peridot stood there and stared at him for a moment. A ladybug flew in front of her, causing her to jump back a little. The ladybug landed on the grass in front of her and she lean in closer to inspect it. It flew away and she watched as it did, she seemed fascinated by it. She shook her head and went back towards the drill to complete work on it.
Night quickly fell and the gang headed towards the barn. Jet let out a small yawn and looked at the now completed drill. He noticed that Peridot was smirking to herself, obviously proud of the work she put in her part. Steven had stars in his eyes as he looked up at the drill.
"Nice work." Garnet said, patting Peridot on the back. That startled Peridot, as she took a couple steps back from Garnet. The gang looked at one another then started to laugh. Steven hugged Peridot from behind and she didn't mind.
"We really did it, huh?" She asked.
"We?" Steven said, joking with her.
"I need to check something." She said, as she suddenly released herself from Steven's hug and climbed inside of the drill.
"She's come so far." Steven said, smiling. "It feels like yesterday that she was trying to kill us."
"No, no. That was several weeks ago." Pearl said.
"Coordinates." Peridot said, peeking her head from the drill. "We still need the cluster's exact coordinates to drill."
"Well." Pearl started. "There's a diamond base that may hold that information, but getting there is going to be difficult."
"Why's that?" Jet asked, curious as to where this base was.
"Because we can't get there by warping." Pearl said. "And it's on..." She looked up in the sky, causing Jet to raise an eyebrow and look up as well.
"The moon!" Steven said, causing Jet's eyes to widen.
"The moon?" Jet repeated, surprise by Steven's response.
"Yes, the moon." Pearl said, causing Jet's eyes to widen a little more.
"The freaking moon..." Jet muttered to himself. "But how?"
"I'll take care of that." Steven said as he walked towards a sleeping Lion. "Lion, can you make us a special super warp to the moon?" Steven asked him. Lion lazily opened his eyes and grunted as a response. He rolled over to his side and started to close his eyes once more.
"Come on, Lion." Steven pleaded to him. "We gotta do this to stop the cluster, if we don't then there's gonna be no more Earth. No more fun times with your pals, no more lion lickers...no more naps..." Lion got up to his feet and let out a mighty roar, his eyes glowing white in the process.
"Guess it was naps." Steven said, looking back at the gang.
"So..." Jet started. "How are all of us gonna fit on Lion?"
"I'll take care of that." Garnet said, adjusting her visor. Jet sweat dropped upon hearing that.
Lion started to take off, running at a ridiculous speed with so many on his back. Garnet sat towards the back-end of Lion with Jet in front of her and Pearl and Amethyst in front of him. Peridot was near the mane and Steven was hidden inside of Lion, peeping out every now and again to breath. Lion was running down a grassy slope until he let out a roar to make a warp.
The outside world vanished in what seemed like an instance, as they were currently inside a warp that Lion was making for them. They were traveling at an incredible speed and Jet was finding it hard to keep his eyes open because of the intense speed. Lion let out another roar and his speed seemed to double in the process. Jet couldn't keep his eyes open at this point and closed them. He heard Lion roar yet again and the speed seemed to double once again.
This process repeated itself a few times and then suddenly stopped. Jet opened his eyes to find him and the others being thrown out of the warp. Lion slide into the wall and the others got off him before he slammed into it. Jet looked around to notice that they looked as though they were in some kind of command center. Steven walked over to Lion, who was breathing rather harshly.
"Oh, Lion." Steven said, hugging his head. "You've earned your naps for the week." Lion only grunted as a response, the warping process taking a lot out of him. The room was dark and Pearl and Garnet activated their gems to light up the room.
"Seem though we've made it." Pearl said, looking around.
"It doesn't look like the moon." Steven said look around as well. Jet took a closer look around himself and thanks to the light that Garnet and Pearl were providing, he was able to make out the interior. The floor had 4 giant shaped diamonds on them. A yellow one, a blue one, a pink one and a white one. Jet figured that each of them represented a member of the diamond authority that Jasper and Topaz were talking about. He looked around and seen wall murals of them as well. Jet grunted and walked to look around some more.
"Hey look over here!" Amethyst said, getting everyone's attention. She was by an area that looked like a giant door next to it. "I think it's a door..." She pressed her hand on the side of it and it opened, showing them the outside. It was almost pitch black and Earth could be seen in the distance. She quickly closed the door back, her hair ruffed a bit by the air that escaped pass her.
"Yup." She said, grinning at them. "We on the moon!"
"Amethyst, please!" Pearl said, getting a little annoyed at Amethyst actions. "Don't blow us into space!" Pearl look as though she was going to continue until she heard the sound of Steven chuckling.
"Whoa!" Steven said, as he started to bounce around. "Look at me! I'm a moon boy!" He started to bounce around, falling at a slow decent. Amethyst eyes widen upon seeing Steven bounce around like he was and she went to catch him. He jumped up in the air and she hit the ground rather hard.
"Hey!" She said, looking at Steven flipping in the air. "How come I can't be a moon boy?"
"We're gems." Peridot said. "We're a space fearing race designed to conquer other worlds. Our physical forms adjust automatically to the gravity of any planetoid."
"Aww... lame." Amethyst said, slightly disappointed.
"Hey, Peridot." Jet said, mentioning her over to where he was. "Who is this?" He pointed at the mural of a very tall woman. Peridot went over to where he was and then let out a gasp, causing Jet to raise an eyebrow.
"It's blue diamond." She said. "Wait... all they all here?" She started to look around, her gem emitted a light to assist her in her search. "Ah, yes! There she is."
"Who?" Jet said, following her. He saw another woman, her mural as yellow as the sun.
"Behold!" She said, clearly excited. "Yellow Diamond!" Jet looked at the mural, its stature very intimidating.
"Isn't she magnificent?" Peridot asked with stars in her eyes. Jet remained silent, his eyes focus on the mural of Yellow Diamond.
'She was the one who order the attack on us?' He thought, his anger starting to rise a bit. He realized that and took a breath to calm himself down. Steven walked over and looked at what they were looking at. He asked the same question that Jet asked and she give the same response, more or less.
"So..." Steven said. "Who are the diamonds anyway? Seems like a big deal." Peridot's eyes widen in disbelief.
"Are you joking me?" Peridot asked, causing both Jet and Steven to raise an eyebrow. "The diamonds are the absolute. Together, they make up the great Diamond Authority that governs home world and all the outline colonies. We live to serve them-" She stopped when she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. That someone was Garnet, who happened to wonder over to where they were. She was glaring down at Peridot, who looked up at her.
"I-I mean we were all made to serve even though some of us...don't anymore." Peridot said, nervously. "Hey, I think there is a control server over there! Let's look!" She ran off to the other side of the room with Steven behind her. Jet and Garnet exchanged looks for a moment then decide to see what Peridot was talking about.
"I think this is right." Jet and Garnet walked up on Peridot saying. She was feeling around on the ground where she was. "The material is different from the surrounding stone. I think if I just do this..." She pressed down hard on the surface and it started to glow. This got the attention of Amethyst and Pearl, who was making their way towards them.
The surface continued to glow for a moment and then it started to raise, making misshaped stairs from them to walk on. During this process, the stairs continued to rise, disturbing Lion from his resting place. He looked around as if confused and wondering what exactly knocked him from a comfortable position. Jet looked as the makeshift stairs continued to form and they seemed to wrap around the confines of the building. He heard Peridot giggling to herself.
"This is so incredible." Peridot stated, as they were climbing the stairs. Steven didn't even bothered walking, he was enjoying bouncing instead. "Only the most elite of the elite can enter these sanctums. We are literally walking in the footsteps of the diamonds."
"They must be a fan of stairs." Jet mumbled, as he placed his hands in his pockets. He was regretting not grabbing a jacket on this trip. He could take the coldness of outside for a brief period but space was on a different level of coldness for him. The group continued the ascendment up the stairs until they reached a corridor that was mostly empty. In the center of the corridor held a single, sphere shaped object that was floating in midair.
"Hey, what's this room?" Steven asked, looking around.
"It's not what we came for." Garnet said as she starting walk up the other set of stairs that were there.
"Can we hurry it up?" Amethyst asked. "This place is giving me the creeps." Steven took one last look at the mysterious object and joined the others as the continued climbing the stairs.
The stairs finally ended and the gems found themselves in a room with a glorious view of the outside. The room was surrounded by a glass dome and in the center, was a control panel with a good view of Earth. Jet let out a low whistle, impressed at the view of Earth that he was looking at.
"We really are on the moon." He said, looking around some more.
"Oh my, goodness!" He heard Peridot say. "This looks like it could be brand new!" He looked in her direction to notice that she was talking about the control panel. The crystal gems looked over the panel with her and Jet made his way over. "I mean, it's a relic by today's standard, but golly it's so elegant, so simple...so perfect!"
"So, how do you turn it on?" Amethyst asked
"I have no idea." Peridot said. Steven sat in the chair that was placed behind the control panel and saw something that caught his eye. He placed his hand on the side of the chair and the control panel started to glow.
"Hey!" He said. "It has one of those hand thingies." Peridot turned around and let out a gasp.
"You can't sit there!" She yelled, causing Steven to raise an eyebrow.
"Why not?" He asked. "It's really cool!"
"That chair is only for the elite gems." Peridot said, a look of worry on her face. "You can't go around sitting where an elite would sit."
"Well, they're aren't here now." Steven said. He slid over to make room then he patted the spot right next to him. "Right?" He was smiling and Peridot remained silent for a moment. She then walked slowly to the chair and sat right next to Steven. She started to chuckle for a bit until Steven took a white crystal from his right-hand side.
"What's this thing for?" He asked, as he looked over it.
"Put that back." Peridot said. He did and Peridot pressed her hand on one of the many switches that the chair hand on it. This particular switch that she hit made the chair slide closer to the control panel. The others quickly moved out of the way to avoid contact. Peridot started to mess with the control panel and a screen popped up.
"This is a really old system." Peridot said, as she continued to mess with the panel. "Gotta find the right... file... ah ha! Ok... cluster, cluster where are you?" She was going through the files of the panel and the screen showed an image of Earth. It zoomed in on a location in America. "Ah, there's the insertion point. Looks like the Beta Kindergarten in sector 9. It's the smaller of the two, not nearly as impressive as yours Amethyst."
"Umm...thanks?" Amethyst said, raising her eyebrow at that.
"But where is the cluster now?" Pearl asked.
"Hang on." Peridot said, as she started to type on the panel. The screen showed coordinates on it and Jet arched an eyebrow, none of it making sense to him. "There it is! It's embedded deep in the mantle. Relative to the barn, it's roughly 2,500 units down. All we need to do is feed this data to the drill and we should be all set."
"That's it then! Mission accomplished!" Pearl said, smiling a bit.
"Yeah team!" Steven said, throwing a fist in the air.
"Great." Amethyst said, walking away from the panel. "Let's get the heck of here." The others started to walk away as well. Steven and Peridot remained at the panel for the time being.
"Wait." Steven said, looking at Peridot. "Does this thing have any games on it?"
"No, no. no. no." Peridot said. "This isn't used for games..."
"Aw." Steven pouted.
"It was used for planning the colony." Peridot started to type once more. "Here, look!" Jet and the others turned around, curious to what she was talking about. The screen showed the continents of the Earth, it had specific red dots all over them. "So, here's a map of all structures that was originally built on Earth..." Jet and the gems made their way towards the control panel as Peridot continued to explain.
"...All told, this probably only accounts for maybe 5% of what was originally planned." Peridot said, as she continued to go through the files.
"What was the plan?" Steven asked.
"Well, let's look." Peridot said, as she pressed a button. The screen disappeared and a mini virtual image of the Earth was shown. Suddenly, parts of the Earth started to dissolve away. The crystal gems let out a gasp as the Earth started to get more distorted to the point where it was unrecognizably. There were also communication towers all over the little surface that was available.
"Ta-da!" Peridot said. "A finished Earth colony! Wow, look at this! 89 Kindergartens, 67 spires, a galaxy warp in each section and efficient use of all available materials! What were you thinking, shutting this operation down? It could've been great!"
"No! You're wrong!" Garnet yelled.
"What do you mean?" Peridot asked, as the atmosphere in the room was now tense. "It's perfect! Look at it."
"We are looking at it." Pearl said, through gritted teeth.
"Yeah, this plan stinks!" Amethyst said, her arms folded.
"Completing this colony would've meant the extinction of all life on Earth." Garnet said.
"But think of the good it would've done." Peridot said. "The gems that would've been made. Our empire expanded!"
"Rose Quartz believed all life was precious and worth protecting." Pearl said, glaring down at Peridot.
"Well, if she wanted to protect it, she did a lousy job!" Peridot said, glaring back at her. "There's be no cluster if the Earth had stayed a colony. Now, there's no colony and there's gonna be no Earth... so, thank you Rose Quartz, you doomed the planet!"
The gems didn't take that well, as they glared at her with their teeth gritted. Even though Jet didn't meet her, he still respected her and even thanked her for her healing spring. He would be forever grateful for that. He felt himself heat up from Peridot's words as a small stream of electricity emitted from his body. Steven looked upset at what Peridot said as well. Garnet walked up to Peridot and grabbed her by her collar, causing her to gasp.
"You, listen to me." Garnet said in a dangerous tone. She summoned her gauntlet in her free hand. "You are talking about things that you do not understand..." As much as he would like for Garnet to hit Peridot, Jet intervened.
"Garnet, stop." Jet said, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. "She's not worth it. We're done here, let's go home." Jet took his hand off her shoulder and Garnet turned her head to look at him then she released Peridot. She then smashed the control panel to pieces and walked off. The others followed her as Steven stayed behind to talk to Peridot.
"What'd I say?" Peridot said, getting off the ground. "I'm just stating a fact. The rebellion didn't really save Earth, they just delayed the obvious."
"It's not the way they see it." Steven said, looking away from her. "They spent thousands of years trying to protect the Earth. I thought, maybe, you finally understood why." He started to walk towards the stairs and Peridot placed her hands on her hips. She then looked through the rubble and pulled out the white crystal from it.
"Peridot?" Steven yelled from the stairs and Peridot hide the crystal behind her back.
"Coming!" Peridot said, as she made her way down. She walked passed Steven and Steven noticed the crystal that she was trying to hide from view.
"Let's go, you two!" Garnet said. Steven scowled at Peridot, wondering what she was up to.