Chapter 26
The Gem Pad that Steven and co. arrived at was in a dense forest that was about a dozen of miles away from Beach City itself. Steven gasped out, "Zircon! Do you know where this place is?!"
"Huh? Uuuuuh…" Zircon was thinking for a moment, completely stumped.
"Silly, this was where we first met, Beach City's Natural Park!" Steven exclaimed. Zircon looked around as he noticed some signs warning hunters on the trees, signs that you would usually see in a natural park. "Oh yeah." This brought a little smile to Zircon's face looking back on that day, never knowing what he was about to encounter from the Corrupted Gem hunt. "Zircon, how long has it been since that day?" Steven asked, walking beside Zircon as Peridot and Lapis listened, never really ever hearing of how the two met.
"Um…from today, I'd say it's been three months." Zircon guessed.
"The three month anniversary of our friendship!" Steven leaped up.
"Ugh, nut-head, that's something you should usually save for when it's been a year. You make it sound like we're in a relationship." Zircon chuckled.
"But think about how far you've come since those three months." What Steven said actually made Zircon be lost in thought, thinking about everything that's happened; gaining the Gems' trust, meeting Steven's human friends, meeting his dad. But then there were also the adventures that he had like the convention with Carnelia, "C-Carneli-…" Zircon mumbled before a huge pain surged into his head, forcing him onto his knees, "AAAAAAAAH!"
"Zircon!" The others screamed as Zircon held his hand up towards them, "Stay back! G-GAAAAAAH!" Zircon curled up against the forest ground, pounding his fist against said ground as his eyes were alternating between orange and green. It wasn't long until he eventually calmed down, but was in short of breath. "Zircon…it was that Nega-thing again, wasn't it?" Steven said as him and Lapis helped Zircon up. Zircon merely nodded.
"Hey Zircon, if you want, I think I might be able to find something to help that problem of yours there." Peridot offered, sounding very worried.
"I don't think this is something science can be able to solve Peridot…" Zircon admitted. "This stupid spell that that Carnelia put on me seems to have been attached to Gem Energy itself. So far…the only thing I can think of in returning me back to normal…is crushing Carnelia's gem."
"Zircon," Lapis gasped in disbelief, "That's a little extreme even for you!"
"Well what do you expect me to do?! Wait until the day this thing makes me lose control and kill all of you?!" Zircon's eyes went crimson from his anger, making his friends look at him in shock. Zircon's eyes quickly went back to their green as he stumbled back against a tree, "I-I'm so sorry…this Nega-Dust…my Bloodstone instincts…" Zircon was digging his nails against his forehead, struggling at the mere thought of what was happening to him. Steven was about to reach out to Zircon until Pearl's voice could be heard, "Zircon?! Was that you I heard?! Is everything alright?!" She could be seen running out from a little hill, looking over at the group. "Oh good, you're all here. You guys gotta take a look at this." Pearl looked as if she was scared out of her life.
Walking down the path that Pearl came from, the others noticed a huge skid path that went through the woods and whatever trees were in its way were knocked down. "What the heck happened?" Peridot called out. "Did a meteor hit here or something?"
"Um…" Zircon pointed over to the end of the skid as there was a massive, shattered, silver-colored meteor crashed into the ground where Garnet and Amethyst were now inspecting. "Oh." Peridot responded with dotted eyes.
"Um, Pearl? What is this?" Steven inquired, really nervous and scared at the same time.
"Something…something I hoped would never come back." Pearl stuttered out.
"Something you wanna fill us in on?" Zircon verbally poked. Pearl turned around to Zircon, Steven, Peridot, and Lapis, sighing out, "This meteor…these kinds of meteors are formed in the galaxy where Homeworld is."
"That doesn't sound good." Zircon started to sound worried himself.
"That's not the worst part. The worst part is that these meteors are actually the cocoon of a very dangerous life form from our galaxy. It's so dangerous that at one point White Diamond herself ordered the destruction of all of these meteors." Pearl explained. Hearing the fact that White Diamond of all people wanted these meteors destroyed made the skin crawl on everyone. "Pearl, what is this creature?" Lapis asked, very hesitant in doing so.
"This creature is called…" Pearl gulped out, "Chromite." Just hearing this name made everyone get goosebumps now, but Peridot was actually freaking out, "Chromite?! You're telling me we got a Chromite wandering around Earth?! Oh this can't be happening! This can't be happening!"
"Lapis?" Pearl looked over at Lapis as she covered Peridot's mouth with her hand. "Thank you. Now I have the silence I need to think about what we're gonna do."
"Pearl, what is this Chromite? Maybe we can help." Steven tugged at Pearl's skirt some.
"Steven, I'm sorry, but…I'm gonna have to ask you and Zircon to stay out of this." Pearl finally admitted.
"Excuse me?" Zircon hunched his head forward, "I know you didn't just ask me of all people to stand on the sidelines."
"Zircon, I'm serious, you guys haven't encountered anything like this before and really, what with your condition, I would rather not have another Carnelian incident to happen!" Garnet and Amethyst were now looking over due to Pearl's screaming as eyes widened from what she just said, looking over at a surprised Zircon whose eyes quickly narrowed, "I see…so that's how you guys really think of me…"
"N-No, Zircon I didn't-" Zircon quickly turned on his heel and began to walk back to the Gem Pad, completely ignoring Pearl.
"Zircon wait!" Steven ran out in front of Zircon who was still walking, "Zircon listen to me. She didn't mean what she said."
"Oh I know exactly what she means!" Zircon's eyes were now stained crimson. "Ever since that day at the convention, I feel as if they've been treating me differently, like I'm some sort of burden now to keep track of!"
"Zircon no, that's not it!" Steven tried to reason with him.
"It's all because of this stupid Nega-Dust and that whole dugout blowout that those guys can't trust me to do anything anymore!" Zircon pushed past Steven, stepping onto the Gem Pad as he was teleported back to the house.
"I'll show them…" Zircon mumbled while travelling through the beam of light. "I'll show them all that I'm not obsolete." He looked up now, his eyes completely orange. "I'll hunt down this Chromite myself…and put it out of its misery."
