Well, I think the last chapter went over well. I got a lot of great reviews from you guys and you seem to be really invested in this story ark, so it only seems fitting that I give you a proper conclusion filled with all the emotion, action, and character development that you crave. Enjoy, and let the battle for the ocean commence!
So many thoughts stirred through Onyx's mind as her body drifted, lifeless and limp in the darkness.
"Who was Lapis Lazuli? Why does she distrust the crystal gems so? Why did they attack her…"
Suddenly she felt something rush into her mouth and fill up her chest.
"And why do I feel like I'm drowning?"
Onyx's eyes opened and she was lying on her back, face to face with the morning sun glaring in her vision. As she tried to get up a wave washed over her and she inhaled more water; she coughed and tried to get it out of her system but with no success. Eventually she got on her hands and knees and put enough pressure on her stomach to push all the water out of her, it wasn't exactly… pleasant, but she didn't want any water sloshing around in her body.
As she coughed the last of it up she looked around to see where she was exactly. She saw that she had landed back on the beach and the temple wasn't more than a few yards away.
"I…made it back to the shore? I thought Lapis knocked me into the bottom of the ocean." She asked herself.
Onyx didn't question her good fortune; she was just glad that she wasn't lost. She walked back to the temple, with a slight limp in her leg and aches in chest, from the blows she took last night. She opened the door to the temple and saw everyone else standing around talking, but when she walked into the room all eyes were on her.
"Well look who's back." Pearl said in a snarky tone.
Onyx rolled her eyes. "You almost sound unhappy about it."
"You and Steven were reckless last night, you disobeyed our orders and you let Lapis get away." Garnet said
"First of all, you were just as powerless to stop her." Onyx walked closer to her. "Secondly, I did what I thought was right. She wasn't a threat until the rest of you showed up and started attacking her."
Garnet turned to meet Onyx's gaze, the two gems stared at each other with intense and almost angry glares, neither one willing to move an inch on this issue.
"Regardless, you're both grounded."
Onyx gasped. "I… don't know what that means exactly. What are the implications of this 'grounding'?"
"It means that we have to stay at the house." Steven explained.
Onyx gasped sincerely this time, now that she had all the information.
"You can't force me to stay here at the temple, you need both Steven and I to help you on your missions."
Pearl crossed her arms. "No we don't. We've managed fine without you before and we'll do the same now. We're going to keep you at the temple in case you decide to have another one of your… fits."
Onyx knew exactly what Pearl meant by "fits".
"Oh so that's what we're calling them know. I act out slightly, learn more about who I am, and you decide to call them "fits". Very nice Pearl, that isn't at all demeaning or makes me feel bad about my actions."
Pearl was about to make a witty retort but the door to the temple shot open and Greg came through it.
"Uh, you guys better come check this out." He said nervously.
Onyx grunted. "Greg, I normally appreciate interactions with you, but we're in the middle of something."
"Trust me… you guys need to see this." He said, before heading back outside.
The gems were silently debating what to do, until finally they all went outside the temple together. They saw almost all of the towns citizens standing on the beach's shore, except it could barely be called a beach anymore… because all of the water was missing.
"It's gone." Onyx said obviously.
The gems walked amongst the crowd of humans, lamenting over their lost ocean, they wanted to know how and why this happened. To them it seemed impossible, but to the gems it was obvious.
"It was Lapis Lazuli." Garnet stated.
Onyx was shocked, not just that Lapis did this but also because of the amount of power she must have to be able to control this much water. Pearl didn't say much but looked at Onyx with a cocky expression because she thought she had been right all along. Steven and Amethyst looked at the two gems, afraid that they were going to start another argument and things would escalate even further.
In the end, Onyx just grunted and mega jumped up into the air and landed back at the temple, she went into her room and laid face down on the bed.
"Why? Why can't I just do what I think is right and have it be right? Am I blind, or just a horrible judge of character?"
Onyx was ready to give up at that point, she almost decided to slump in her bed and actually take this punishment lying down. But before she gave in she raised her head up, got off the bed, and went back on her feet.
"No way am I going to let this happen, not a chance. I helped do this so I'm going to own it and make it right! Pearl always stands in my way, but not this time."
Onyx started stretching her arms and legs, limbering up her body.
"Pearl expects me to throw a fit?" Onyx asked herself. She clenched her fist and smiles "Might as well make it a good one."
After Steven learned that his room could reshape itself, Onyx learned that the structures of the rooms were susceptible to change and mostly just constructs of the gems' needs and desires. She had started practicing with what these rooms were capable of and could make a decent sized training ring without too much struggle.
Onyx stomped her right root on the floor, her bed and bookshelf disappeared and the room was starting to be filled with crystal totems; each one was the size of a refrigerator and they started spinning around her slowly, getting closer and closer.
She lunged towards one, gave it a few quick punches in the front so that it started to crack, then she spun around and kicked the totem which launched a huge chunk of crystal into another totem which shattered it on contact.
Onyx smiled at her handiwork.
"I only have a little while to get ready, better make the most of it."
45 minutes later…
Onyx finished her training, all of her aches and pains were gone and she felt determined and energized. She knew what had to be done and she was willing to do it.
She walked out of the room and saw that, besides Greg and the other gems, Connie and Lion had shown up as well. She supposed that Connie heard about the ocean's disappearance and came over quickly, realizing that gems were probably looking into it and wanted to help. She was a considerate soul.
Onyx smiled. "Glad to see everyone's here."
Steven was glad to see her to. "Onyx! How are you doing?"
Onyx smiled and crossed her arms. "I feel good Steven, better than I did yesterday. Now it's about time that I put this good feeling to use."
Pearl stepped forward. "Oh no you don't, Steven is ungrounded but you still need to stay here until the problem you helped cause is dealt with."
"Actually… no I don't."
Steven and Connie were shocked by Onyx's dismissal of the gem's words. It made sense, they were still children and used to following authority.
"I helped set Lapis free so I'm going to take care of this problem by myself. I'll find Lapis, make her return the ocean, and then… we'll see."
"We're planning on doing the same." Garnet said. "We might get to her first."
"Maybe." Onyx sprouted her crystal wings. "But I can fly faster than any of you can travel, and I can sense the energies of other gems. I have the advantage."
Onyx walked to the front door, she opened it and almost stepped out before turning back to see everyone else's reactions. No one was yelling at her, no one was telling her to stop but she could tell what they were all feeling: Pearl resented her with a passion and didn't want to see her leave but knew that trying to stop her would only cause problems, Garnet wasn't happy but her attitude was more passive and she was willing to let Onyx try, Amethyst… Amethyst really didn't want her to go, Onyx couldn't tell what this feeling was but there was a strong nervousness in Amethyst's being.
Despite this negativity, she saw Amethyst give her thumbs up and she returned it before stepping out on the porch and taking off into the sky.
She heads away from the temple as fast as she could, heading further and further into the area where the ocean used to reside. She figured that if she headed straight in one direction she was bound to pick up on some sort of energy signature.
As she flew on and on for what seemed like hours a thought occurred to Onyx: Why was she doing this? It sounded like a dumb question but she realized that she usually never got this heated with Pearl and she doesn't usually go against what the other gems say. What was it about this situation that made her act so different? Could it be Lapis?
What was it about Lapis that made Onyx feel different? What was it that drew her to the water gem so strongly? She hadn't the foggiest idea.
Onyx was in thought for a while until she felt a huge spike of energy nearby and… well she didn't need her powers to see the giant tower of water shooting up from the ground and she assumed that was where Lapis was.
She landed about three feet away from the tower and slowly made her way to it. The tower itself was made of incredibly smooth water, and yet it was rushing upwards like it was trying to get somewhere. Onyx had no idea what Lapis was trying to do, but she had to find some way to stop it.
Before she could come up with a plan, the water in the tower began to move and take on the form of Lapis' head.
"She must have sensed me coming." Onyx thought.
"You shouldn't be here!" Lapis said, in a deep and booming voice.
"I need to be here Lapis! I want to help you!" Onyx cried out.
"You've done this before and I attacked you, what makes you think I will accept your help now?"
"Because don't you think that maybe if I let you out of the mirror, then chased you into the ocean to try and help you, even after you knocked me around and threw me through a rock, that I'm genuine about wanting to help you?"
Lapis looked at her with those blank vacant eyes of hers wide open, maybe she was right… maybe she could be trusted… but then she closed them tightly and shook her head.
"No… no, you can't be trusted! You're a Crystal Gem!"
"But I wasn't always one! I chose to be with them because they found me."
Lapis was silent for a moment.
"You don't owe them anything. You should just be thankful they didn't do anything to you."
Onyx sighed. "Lapis, I don't know why you were trapped in that mirror but… that was probably a long time ago. I don't even think these gems were the one that did it, they don't even remember you."
"But they saw me in that mirror, they didn't help me! They saw my gem and they did nothing!"
Lapis was right. The Crystal Gems… didn't help gems, they stopped them from doing anything else; it's why all the monsters they beat were held in stasis for the rest of their lives, and it's probably why Lapis was stuck in her mirror for so long.
"I've won't ask you again…"
Suddenly, water began to break away from the giant pillar and took on a form of its own. It looked like it was filling up a mold, a mold shaped like Onyx; Lapis managed to create a clone of Onyx made entirely out of water. Though it didn't have any facial features and was fairly blank it looked at Onyx with a menacing glare.
"Leave…me…alone."
Onyx didn't know what it would take to get Lapis to agree with her, but if Lapis felt threatened then maybe it was her chance to live that Onyx needed to appeal to.
Onyx took a deep breath and collected her thoughts. "Alright Lapis, this is all I'm going to say: When the Crystal Gems find you or if you decide to attack them, things could end badly for you. I don't want that for you, but there might just be another way out of this: Stop fighting them, come down here and stand by my side. Then maybe, just maybe, we can all talk this out and things can be peaceful."
Lapis struggled with this plea, she wanted to believe… she was still so tired after coming out of the mirror. She needed a place to be herself and maybe this could be it, even if it wasn't home…
But her dreams were broken when she felt more presences approaching her, the other Crystal Gems had found her… and she had a good idea how.
"You led them right to me."
It was less of a question and more of an accusation. Onyx realized what Lapis meant was saying and she tried to defend herself.
"No, Lapis, I didn't…
"I thought you were different… and you betrayed me to!"
Lapis' water clone rushed after Onyx, it slammed its water body into hers and it actually packed more force than she was expecting. It knocked her back quite a few feet and she landed in front of Greg's van where all the gems were getting out of.
"Onyx!" Steven cried out.
The more caring members of the group came over to her as she got up off the ground.
"What happened?" Connie asked.
Onyx's water duplicate jumped down to greet them, it stood in front of the group menacingly.
"That happened." Onyx responded.
The water clone came at her again this time, but Onyx managed to dodge the attack this time.
"It seems Lapis can make water puppets to do her bidding."
The water clone tried to punch Onyx but she blocked it with her arms, then she grabbed the clone's arms and spun it around and slammed it into the ground causing it to splatter like a puddle. It tried to reform itself but Onyx smashed the bigger parts of it with her boots to deter it from doing so.
Onyx sighed and looked towards the group. "You have impeccable timing, I had almost talked her down and gotten her to come along peacefully then you showed up and erased all my hard work."
"Right, because clearly you had this whole situation under control." Pearl quipped.
Onyx clenched her fists.
"Pearl…if you don't stop, I promise you Lapis will be the second biggest problem you have to deal with today."
"We did tell you that we were going to find her." Garnet said.
"Yes, you did, and now you can go away so that I can finish fixing this!"
"You aren't going anywhere." Lapis boomed.
They all looked up to the pillar of water and saw four more shapes walk forward, each one was a water clone of a gem and they all had the same dead expressions and smooth features of the previous one.
"If you won't stop pursing me then you leave me no choice but to fight you."
Amethyst pulled out her whip. "That suits me just fine."
Garnet and Pearl pulled out their weapons as well, and their aquatic counterparts did the same.
"Greg, get back. I'm afraid this is going to get messy." Onyx warned.
"Works for me." Greg said as he ran for cover.
The two groups of gems were at a standstill, everything seemed calm and still until they pounced on each other. Each gem going for their water clone and vice versa; it wasn't long until a heated battle began and Onyx felt caught in the middle of it with no clear path to take.
Help her friends who have done wrong? Or help the gem who probably doesn't care about her anymore?
As the battle raged on Onyx saw Garnet trying to trade blows with her water clone but neither one gaining the advantage. She shut her eyes tight, gritted her teeth and made a choice.
"Curse it all…"
She summoned a scythe, she made her way through the battlefield and as the copy of Garnet punched the original in the face, stunning Garnet fort a brief moment… Onyx came down from above and sliced the clone down the middle, causing its form to destabilize.
Garnet took in a few labored breaths, her battle with the clone had tired her.
"Is this what you wanted?" Onyx asked Garnet. "Is all of this really better than taking a minute to stop and try to talk to Lapis instead.
"No…"
Garnet pulled back her arm, preparing a punch; Onyx thought it was meant for her but Garnet moved her punch a few inches to the side and hit a reformed water Garnet in the face, causing it to move back.
"But it's the only way things could have gone."
"Really Garnet? Is that a fact?" Water Garnet tried to punch them but Onyx used her scythe to block her punch and swiped at her feet to knock her off balance. "Let me ask you something, are you saying that because she attacked us or because you have an actual reason for hating her?"
"She's a threat to this planet and everyone on it."
Garnet reengaged her fight with the water clone, Onyx got up behind it to stab it and try and to end the fight quicker but the clone was fast enough to block them both.
"Why? Because we backed her up into a corner? Anyone will fight when their life is threatened, it's an instinct that we feel inside."
Garnet and the water clone struggled for dominance, meanwhile Onyx made a crystal blade and stuck it in the water clone's back to damage it but the water clone absorbed the blow and tied to take in Onyx's whole arm.
"You feel it, I feel it. I might have even have done the same if I were in Lapis' shoes."
That surprised Garnet. "What?"
As the water Garnet tried to pull Onyx in more and more, she created crystals around her trapped hand to try and break apart the clone's composition. In a final act, she put her other arm inside the clone's body and pulled her arms apart until it created enough force to separate the clone's body into several larger globs of water that shot in different directions and landed on the ground.
With the threat gone Onyx asked her question again.
"Look at me Garnet, look at me and tell me that under different circumstances you wouldn't have tried to just lock me up the second that you saw me come out of that comet."
Garnet struggled for an answer. "I… I don't know."
"Well… I have a pretty good idea of what that answer might be."
Onyx relaxed for that moment, content with her answer, until she saw something else that demanded her attention; Lion had just been smacked into Greg's van. The gems could defend themselves with weapons but Lion had no such tactic.
Onyx gripped her scythe. "Come on, the battle still rages on."
She dashed off to try and help Lion back up, but before she could get there she felt something wrap around her leg; she saw that Water Amethyst had wrapped a whip around her leg and then threw her into a large rock which cracked it down the middle.
It didn't hurt as much as she would have thought, but it threw her off. As she tried to get up and back into the fight she saw Water Amethyst throw another rock at her but this time she was fast enough to get out of the way.
"Hey Onyx!"
She heard Amethyst yelling at her from a way's away. She looked over and saw that she was tied up by one of the water clone's whips, but after a bit of struggling she managed to break her bonds.
"Toss the rock!"
Toss the rock? What did she…
Onyx saw Water Amethyst throw another huge rock at her and in that second she knew what Amethyst meant. The game that they played…
She smiled. "Toss the rock!"
Onyx jumped into the air to intercept this rock, she wrapped her arms around it and while the impact pushes her back she managed to get enough momentum to throw it in Amethyst's direction. Amethyst jumped up to meet it; while she did that, Onyx dove back to the ground to fight Water Amethyst and keep her distracted.
The clone was very single minded, once Onyx stepped into its field of view it lashed out at her with a whip. It fought just like Amethyst, fast but sloppy, and Onyx dodged the whip strikes while also keeping the attention on her. Soon enough a shadow appeared underneath the two and with one grab Onyx slammed Water Amethyst into the ground and moved out of the way, so before Water Amethyst could get up off the ground she was crushed underneath a giant rock.
Amethyst came down and landed right next to Onyx, they high fived at their great work but Onyx's revelry ended as she felt something bad: Steven was panicking. She looked for the source of his panic and saw that his clone was trying to drown both him and Connie.
Seeing that filled Onyx with a white-hot rage, she dashed over to try and get them free but Greg beat her to the punch by running over the clone with his can which released them; so, she did the next thing by checking on their conditions.
"Are you kids okay?" She asked.
Steven coughed up as much water as he could and shook his head. "I-I'm fine."
Onyx turned towards where that water clone once stood and she was beyond angry. How could Lapis do this? Steven was the one who let her go, the only friend she had in thousands of years and she tried to kill him… maybe she was wrong about Lapis this entire time.
As she pondered this moral dilemma the water Steven threw the van off its body and up into the air, it came down in a loud crash and threw Greg along with it. While the kids checked to make sure Greg was okay, Onyx looked at the thing and glowered.
"What is wrong with you Lapis?" She practically screamed. "What malice do you have that you can't let anything go? That you would kill the only friends you have?"
Water Steven raised his hand and created a large water ball.
"If you want to fight, then fight me! Come on!"
Onyx summoned crystals around her hands to make claws to rip this thing to shreds with, but before she could move Steven grabbed onto her arm.
"No! No more fighting, please, I don't want to fight anymore."
The clone didn't listen; it threw the water ball in defiance and tried to hit Steven again.
"I said, I don't want to fight anymore!"
Steven stepped in front of Onyx and raised an arm to defend her, and from his arm came his weapon: a pink shield.
Onyx had never seen Steven summon his shield before, she was impressed that he could do it and that he did it to come to her aid. He always seemed to struggle with his magical powers, so the fact that he did it now when things were at their worst spoke volumes about his character.
After the shield was summoned and the water ball was deflected, it created a sound that resonated in the air and dissolved any of the water clones that were still left standing. Whether that was a sign that Lapis wanted to stop fighting they didn't know, but they suspected that now was their chance.
Onyx dismantled her crystal gloves and walked toward the water pillar, Steven followed close behind her. No one else said a word or tried to stop them, they just looked on and hoped that they would finally be the ones to end this struggle.
At the foot of the pillar Steven and Onyx looked up.
"Lapis, we're coming up… so don't try to drown us." Steven said.
Onyx held out a hand. "Hold your breath Steven."
Steven nodded, he took her hand and then took a breath. Then they stepped together into the water pillar and shot upwards higher and higher into the sky until finally they came close to the top.
When they reached the top, Steven stepped out of the stream and stood on a smooth water platform without much problem, but when Onyx tried to step out she felt herself being stopped by some invisible force. Then it lifted her out of the pillar and held her above Steven's head, she was surrounded by a sphere of water that gripped her tightly to the point that it almost crushed her.
She looked in front of her and saw that it was Lapis who had her in this water death grip while Steven looked on in shock and horror.
"Lapis…" She strained to say.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't crush you." Lapis threatened.
"No, don't" Steven begged.
Onyx struggled to find a reason that she hadn't used yet, one that would appeal to Lapis… she could only think of one.
"Because… if you were going to kill me you could have done it last night…"
Lapis seemed surprised by her answer.
"You threw me around, you slammed me into a rock, but you didn't try to kill me because you didn't want to. You don't want to kill any of us, you just want to be left alone… you even brought me back to the temple, didn't you?"
Lapis was silent for a moment, before un-bubbling Onyx and letting her back down onto the ground. Onyx grabbed her chest to try and relive the pressure that had caused her pain.
"Now how about instead of talking about what we're doing, let's ask what you're doing."
Steven agreed. "Yeah, what are you doing? This thing, the ocean, this is crazy! Can't we work this out? We gems should be friends."
Lapis gripped her fists in frustration. "Don't you know anything, Steven? Your friends, they don't really care about other Gems. All they care about is the Earth. But I never believed in this place..."
Lapis fell to her knees and sighed. "I just want to go home."
Onyx and Steven moved closer to try and comfort her, Onyx sat to the right of her while Steven went to the right.
"Listen Lapis, I know how you feel…"
Lapis scoffed. "No you don't."
Onyx looked at her defiantly. "Oh really? Tell me if this sounds familiar: you're a gem, you wake up after being asleep for who knows how many thousands of years, you're not quite sure where you are or what you're supposed to do but you're met with hostility. You're scared, you want to lash out…"
As Onyx told her story Lapis looks at her.
"…and you do, because you don't have a purpose and you don't know who took it away and you just want to be mad. That's me Lapis, that's everything that I've gone through; the only difference between us is that I don't remember anything to go back to, so I found a new home and felt happy living here."
She put her hand on Lapis' hand.
"The Earth is my home now…"
"Mine to." Steven said. "And we want it back just as much as you want yours. So please: can we have our ocean back?"
"I'm only using the ocean because my gem is cracked. If I just stretch it far enough..." Lapis sighs. Her angry façade disappeared and she realized that what she was doing only hurt people. "This is never going to work."
Onyx felt sad for the gem, she really did. Sure, she was mad at her for trying to attack the rest of the gems but given her own history she shouldn't be one to judge. Perhaps if she had something to go back to then maybe she would be just as intense as Lapis was, but right now she felt like their journeys were similar and that connected them on an emotional level.
The moment was broken as Steven made a statement that would solve their problems.
"I can fix your gem! I have healing powers!"
Onyx can't believe she didn't think of it sooner.
"You have healing powers?" Lapis asked.
"I know, right?"
From there it was a simple matter of Steven licking his hand and dragging it across Lapis' broken gem, within seconds the gem glowed brightly and it was fully reformed. Lapis sprouted a pair of water wings from her gem and turned to the both of them, she opened her eyes to reveal that she had two big blue orbs for iris'.
"Thank you Steven." She said gleefully.
"No prob bob."
"…It's Lapis."
Clearly Lapis didn't get Earth humor. "Oh… right."
"Well… goodbye."
Onyx didn't have a chance to say goodbye back as Lapis instantly flew away and out into the deep reaches of space. She wanted to ask if she would see Lapis again, she wanted to ask her to have a safe journey, and… say that even though they had only known each other for two days it was a wonderful experience. But she said none of this, and was only left with her thoughts.
Soon after Lapis left the whole water tower that they were standing on began to shake and rumble with great force.
"Umm Steven, if Lapis is gone… what's holding up this water tower?" Onyx asked.
"Nothing!" He replied in a panic.
"Ah."
The tower crumbled underneath their very feet, breaking up into blocks of water and falling back down towards the earth far below them. Steven flailed his body as he was at the mercy of the earth's gravity but Onyx summoned her wings and dived after him. She caught up with him quickly and grabbed him, keeping them both safe.
Suddenly, Lion and Connie appeared out of a random portal, they were hopping from water block to water block and using them as platforms. When they got close Connie extended her arm.
"Grab on!" She screamed.
Onyx grabbed her arm and Connie pulled them both onto Lion's back.
"Hold on!"
Lion fell straight down before roaring and creating a portal that led them back down to the base of the tower and with the rest of the gems.
"We need to get out of here now. The tower-"
Before they could even finish that thought water began to rush over the group and carry them all away. Onyx closed her eyes for fear that they would be stuck at the bottom of the ocean and waited for the water to overwhelm her… but nothing happened.
When she reopened her eyes, she saw that they were all completely dry and they were floating on top of Greg's van. Steven was fast enough to create a bubble around then that kept all of them dry and stopped the water from overtaking them. Now they were just riding the waves back to the shore and soon they made it back to Beach City.
With the ocean back and the gems safely on the shore, the crowd of people which one disparaged the loss of their ocean was now overjoyed to have it back and people to thank for it. Onyx was glad that they were getting this well-deserved recognition and that everything had worked out in the end.
"So, I assume Lapis made it off planet?" Garnet asked.
Onyx nodded yes.
"What does that mean for us?" Pearl asked.
"It means that we did the right thing." Onyx responded. "If she hates us that much then let her leave, she won't do us any more harm."
"That remains to be seen." Garnet said.
And so, one of the most turbulent adventures the gems had up to this point came to an end. The world was back to normal, justice had been served… and Onyx had a lot on her mind for the coming days.