S2-24
Recollection and discovery


It was storming outside, and William was helping Steven prepare some stew, using a recipe the Emerald picked up on his travels.
Peridot was still in the bathroom, the Crystal Gems had left recently, Vilo and Blith went to go visit Lapis, Morlax was still out investigating an ancient Emerald signature the Path-forger detected, and the Freedom Shield was decrypting the files stored on Peridot's limb enhancers.

"The others left, Peridot. It's just you, me, and William. You can come out now." Steven called to their 'guest'. "No! I... I like it in here!" "OK then."

William closed the fridge, bringing out a few carrots. He put them on a cutting board, grabbed a knife, formed a green gauntlet for protection, and started cutting the orange vegetables at an impressive speed. "She needs to learn how things work around here, don't you think?" "You're right about that, William. I'm sure if she took the time and effort to learn more about Earth, she might not want to do bad things to it." That's Steven, always looking on the bright side of things.

While Steven stirred the pot of diced potatoes and tomatoes, William finished chopping the carrots. With William's focus shifted, a metallic clang was heard. He looked at the board, seeing that the knife had collided with the gauntlet. He lifted the tool, finding it deformed, having dents in the blade from his replicated handwear. "I'll ask Blith to buff that out later." He stated, putting the knife aside and adding the carrot slices into the stew. "Good thing you had that gauntlet on, or else you might've cut yourself." Steven had a point. That was some good thinking on William's part. "So, William, I've been meaning to ask you something." "Go ahead, Steven." William said as he took a drink from the fridge. "What was it like when you crash-landed on Earth after Yellow Diamond's forces destroyed your home planet?"
In surprise, William hit the back of his head on the top of the fridge's interior. The question Steven asked even intrigued Peridot, who opened the bathroom door.

William went over to the couch and sat down, collecting his thoughts. Before he could begin, a Scout Drone from the Freedom Shield entered the house. "Emerald William, I have just received a report from Emerald Morlax. He has discovered another Emerald cache hidden on Earth." "Well, we did leave caches on various inhabited planets so we could defend the inhabitants as a result of Code E-8, so it would make sense that he'd find them here. Plus, he had that Emerald pulse rifle with him last time we went to the Galaxy Warp."

"Freedom Shield, William was about to tell me a story!" Steven said excitedly. Peridot spoke up. "Actually, he was about to recount the details of his actions following a crash-landing he experience several decades ago." At this point, the Scout Drone began recording the story of how William roamed the Earth for over a hundred lifetimes... alone.
"Let me tell you how it all began. It was over a couple dozen centuries ago. I was just running a routine diagnostic check on the Freedom Shield's sentient onboard AI, nothing special. Without any warning, a fleet of what I could only assume to be several thousand war ships appeared in orbit of Epsilon 7-B. It was fight or flight, and I chose flight. Vilo and Blith were onboard at the time. Our ships have advanced anti-tracking matrices, so I don't know how they found us. Anyway, I took off, leaving Epsilon 7-B behind. They used about a hundred of those red eyeball things on the planet itself, causing the crust and mantle to break apart, leaving the planet's molten core open to attack. Just like the Emeralds that didn't evacuate, Epsilon 7-B... was shattered..." He stopped, welling up with grief for the rest of his kind. "Everyone I ever knew... gone..."

He looked at Steven and Peridot, who both had tears in their eyes. He wasn't done, so William continued. "However, we didn't escape unscathed. The Freedom Shield's flight stabilizers were damaged, and the onboard navigation systems were becoming increasingly unstable. I had no choice but to activate the warp drive. With damaged thrusters, I couldn't control the ship's course. Vilo, Blith, and I entered the escape pod, unmaking our physical forms for safety. The pod was ejected, but I was the only one released after landing since the systems were damaged. For centuries, I walked the Earth on my own. You'd think I'd go insane, but my psychological integrity is better than that. With no guidance, I roamed the planet, blending in with the local inhabitants, humankind. I almost felt a romantic interest in one, but she was already married. After centuries of traveling, something happened in the sky while I explored what humanity calls the Amazon rainforest, and my hand burned. Somehow, I had been corrupted. Black corruption veins were spreading from my gemstone, but the energy coursing through it kept the corruption in check." He winced at the pain he felt at the moment he was first corrupted.

"Over the next few centuries, I encountered mutated gem monsters. Without a weapon of my own, I had to use the environment as my weapon, turn the surroundings against them. As I fought one of them, I encountered the Crystal Gems, and they brought me here. Since then, I've managed to help them in their missions, and I found a piece of Emerald tech that burned out my corruption. An Emerald Energy Reservoir, brimming with power. During my time with them, I gained enhanced replicas of their weapons and abilities. I found my way back to the crash site of the Freedom Shield not too long after, only to realize that the onboard AI was still functional, and it was repairing itself during my travels."

William continued telling his story, seeing how Steven and Peridot were enthralled with every detail of his 'adventure'. "I found an old friend of mine, Morlax, in the Facet 5 Kindergarten, but he was shattered. Thankfully, since I replicated and enhanced Steven's healing ability, I managed to bring him back together. His own ship, the Path-forger, was nearby. Evidentially, Path-forger went into hibernation mode, shutting down its generator, and going completely offline. I manually rebooted the generator, bringing the Path-forger back online. Just so you know, the Path-forger is an Emerald terraforming vessel. Bringing it back online was essential to help human life colonize other worlds. Heh... Me and Morlax have known each other since we successfully developed sentient starship operating system AIs. We lost contact with him about 53 years later while he was on Earth. I guess... that's the end of the story of how I got here... plus a little of what happened after. Any questions?"
Peridot raised her hand. "Yes, Peridot?" "Do you happen to know why Yellow Diamond's forces attacked Epsilon 7-B in the first place?" "No, they never told us. It was all 'destroy first, ask questions never'. They seemingly attacked for no reason." Peridot had another question. "How do you think Yellow Diamond's forces even found Epsilon 7-B?" "I don't know. I don't think anyone did." "You believe yourself and Morlax to be the last of your kind. I must report that I've seen another." William and Steven were surprised at Peridot's words. "Another Emerald? Alive?!" "Yes. I overheard various other gems refer to her as the 'Dark Stone'."

William then showed Peridot the marking on his gemstone. "Each Emerald has a mark on their gemstone that determines their destiny. What mark did this Emerald have?" "I have actually seen this mark once or twice. It looks like... um..." William gave Peridot a pencil and a piece of paper. "Thank you." She drew the mark she saw. It looked like a vortex with twelve spider leg-like spindles originating from it. William remembered that mark all too well. It haunted his nightmares. "Thavix..."
"Accessing recorded databanks. Thavix was an Emerald with questionable behavioral patterns and ideals looked down upon by the Emerald Order. During a Kindergarten raid, Thavix vanished. No Emerald search parties reported any success in locating her. Her recorded status is unknown."

Suddenly, thunder struck, causing Peridot to panic. "IT'S HAPPENING!" "What's happening?" William asked cautiously. "THE CLUSTER IS FORMING!" "Are you sure, Peridot?" "What else could be making that horrible-" Thunder struck again, cutting her off. "AHHHHH! It's pounding on the Earth from the inside! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!" "Global seismic readings indicate otherwise. Common Earth weather condition: thunderstorm. A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, or a thundershower, is a type of storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. Thunderstorms occur in association with a type of cloud known as a cumulonimbus." The Freedom Shield explained. "Uh... What?" Peridot was genuinely confused. "Yeah. Everything is fine. It's just thunder. It happens when it rains." Steven stated. "Sometimes when it rains. Other times, there's rain, but no thunder." William added.
"You don't know about rain?" Steven asked the small gem. "I've never heard of this." "Peridot, allow me to educate you on this. When the sun heats up water, it evaporates, turning into water vapor which builds up in the atmosphere, becoming clouds. When it cools down, the vapor reverts back into a liquid and falls back down, thus it rains. If it's especially cold, the vapor becomes solid, leading to a cold white powder known as snow." William explained.

"The stew is ready." The Scout Drone turned off the stove and prepared four containers that doubled as food bowls, filling them with the soup before heading out, leaving two for Steven and William.

After finishing the meal, Steven headed outside into the rain. William and Peridot headed out to follow him, but Peridot stayed just inside the doorway.
Feeling the calm pitter-patter of the rain, William sat down and relaxed.
Peridot, still uneasy about the rain, carefully and hesitantly stepped outside. "Quite peaceful, wouldn't you agree, Peridot?" William asked.
Down below, Steven was playing in the rain, having a good time. William could hear Peridot reply in awe. "Cool..."

Getting up to head back inside, William called for the hybrid. "Steven, I think you better come inside! It's starting the get chilly out here! You don't to get sick with pneumonia, do you?" Steven quickly rushed back into the house.

William proceeded to clean the mud off of Steven, rubbing him dry with a towel afterwards. "That was fun." "Fun for you, relaxing for me." William stated. "It was... something." Peridot said, deep in thought. "Steven? William?"
"Hm?" "Yes, Peridot?" The two turned their attention to Peridot with curiosity. "There's something I have to say." After a long pause, Peridot said it. "Thank you." "Uhh... What for?" Steven asked, confused. "For explaining this 'rain' business to me." "Oh, no problem." Steven chuckled. "Yes. You're both much more intelligent than I initially believed." William spoke up. "That's an... interesting thing to hear." "Yes, and the both of you are much more useful than those clods." That word again, it irritated William, grated on his nerves.
"Steven, William, I've made up my mind." Peridot stated. "What's this about?" William wondered. "I've decided to share some... info with you." "I know you use my tooth brush." Steven simply put. "No. Well... Yes." "Brushing your teeth leads to good oral hygiene." William stated. "It's about the Cluster." Peridot added. "The Clus- Hang on." William headed to the door. "William, wait!" Peridot called. Just in time. William stopped right in his tracks.

"You have to tell the Crystal Gems! They need to know!" Steven stated. "No! I don't want to talk to them! You're the only ones I need! I can show you now, but I have nothing! My arm attachments, my fingers, my screen, my log, it's all gone! However, all of my logs up to date 6-5-2 still exist, backed up in Facet 5 of the Prime Kindergarten!" Peridot explained. "If we're going to the Kindergarten, you'll need some security, just in case." William stated, shape-shifting his right arm into the Plasma Buster.

With that, they used the Warp Pad and arrived at the Kindergarten. "This is the place." William stated, looking over the area. "OK! Let's go!" Steven started walking out, but an arm got in his way. "Hang on. Wait right here." William jumped down, shape-shifting himself into a basic industrial lift.

Steven and Peridot walked onto the platform, causing the guardrails to come up. William's voice was heard from the terminal. "Going down. Please remain behind the railing while the elevator is in motion." In a matter of seconds, they reached the bottom. "You have reached your destination. Please exit the lift platform." The two stepped off, watching as William reverted back to his artificially created human form.

"Hmm... William, how is it that this form was immune to a Gem Destabilizer?" Peridot asked. "Just a little Emerald invention. Synthetic particles, used by Emeralds to create fully organic forms down to the atomic level. It basically creates a living organism, which would remain neurologically blank, unless melded with an Emerald. What you see now is a result." William explained. Peridot was genuinely fascinated.

"Every time I come here, this place just gets worse." Steven remarked. He wasn't wrong, the place looked like it was slowly falling apart. "I know. It's been so poorly managed." Peridot stated.

After a while of walking, Peridot spoke up again. "That shield though... You're some kind of quartz, right?" Peridot had no idea. "Peridot, let me educate you on human biology. Steven, why don't you go on ahead? Find the main control room, some answers to our questions may lie there." William ordered. Steven pulled off a salute and went on ahead.

Steven found the dusty elevator shaft in the ground and slid down, ending up in the control room. The chamber was dark, hard to see.

After waiting around for a bit, he heard voices. "-even must be like a completely new species if that's the case. Seriously... Half-human and half-Gem? We thought it to be impossible!" "Well, just because something's never happened before, that doesn't mean it's impossible, which reminds me of a human expression: 'First time for everything'." Peridot and William said respectively as they joined Steven in the control room.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Steven wondered. "Yeah, I'm questioning it as well. Last time we were here, this place held dismembered body parts of other Gems that were disturbingly stuck together." "Yes, I was checking their progress. When it became clear that the Earth was no longer a viable colony, Homeworld decided to use it for something else. A series of experiments. A Gem geo-weapon." Peridot said. "I assume you assisted the initial development of this twisted project of theirs?" William asked. "No, I wasn't lucky enough to be around for that, but I read over a few hundred years of reports." "Right then, and I'm guessing this is where we need to be, correct?" "Yes. I'm going to have to remove this panel and do a bit of work to restore power to this room." Peridot said, pressing an unseen button, making a panel differentiate itself from the rest of the wall.

William pulled the panel off, allowing Peridot to access the power cables underneath. "Hmm. There's no power in these wires. I guess that's a result of there being a massive hole where the power source once was."
"Let me help you with that." William shape-shifted his lower right arm into a small box with half a dozen jumper cables sticking out. Peridot connected the cables to the power grid, prompting William to use his own energy to power the chamber. It worked quite well, until a few sparks flew from the wiring, causing a power outage for a second. It had worked TOO well.

"OK, that's too much power." Peridot said, stepping away from the power cables. "Noted. Now then, what about the Cluster?" Peridot went to a control pedestal, helped up by Steven so she could lower it down to their height, and accessed the information for display. A massive load of Gem shards were projected on the surrounding screens. "These are the early attempts at artificial Fusion."
"That's a lot of Gem shards..." "You said it, Steven." William was gaping at the plethora of Gem shards that were being displayed on the monitors.
"We were growing them here at this very site, but these were just prototypes for the final product." Peridot stated as she prompted a holographic globe to be projected, displaying a mark that appeared to be close to the east coast of North America. "A singular, giant, artificial Fusion, comprised of millions of Gem shards. The Cluster."
"Let me get this straight... There is an amalgamation abomination INSIDE THE PLANET?!" William was starting to freak out. "When it forms, it'll be much, much bigger than the Earth. Right now, it lies dormant, incubating in the Earth's core, but when it emerges and takes its physical form, it will destroy the planet from the inside. The prototypes are already emerging, and the Cluster is next. If we can't get off this planet, we've must find a way to stop the Cluster." Peridot said.

The chamber darkened, having lost power. William unhooked his gemstone energy pool from the control center. "Let's just find it and get rid of it." He said, climbing up the elevator shaft.

When Steven and Peridot caught up to him, they saw William fighting off clustered Gem mutants, destroying their physical forms with his sword, the blade of which appeared to be on fire. He struck the ground, forming a crack in the rock that heated up in seconds, releasing an explosion of molten rock under one of the mutants.

Once the Gem mutants were all gone, William sheathed his blade, coincidentally followed by the Warp Pad activating. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were on it. They showed up just in time to see William send all the bubbled Gems back to the Temple.
"Steven, are you alright?" Pearl was the first to speak, and she was worried. "I took care of it, Pearl. Not a scratch on him." William stated, patting out some smoke on his left sleeve. They saw that Peridot was with them.
"What's Peridot doing here?!" Amethyst demanded. "Steven, I told you to keep an eye on her." Garnet sounded disappointed. "I know, but-" Steven was interrupted by Peridot. "He did what he was told! Listen up, you clo- nyargh... Crystal Gems. I've made up my mind. I have something to tell you about the Cluster."


Took me a while, but MAN I distracted myself! Doing some Strikes on Destiny 2 and looking for Guardians to join my Clan. I was pretty busy.

William retold his experiences following the Freedom Shield crash-landing on Earth. He's been around, I have to admit. Synthetic particles though... I forgot to add that to the Emerald Documentary, but it's pretty much how William described them.

See you next time, and we will learn more.