"Where is he?" Pearl asks worried.

"Do you think he should have been back by now?" Amethyst asks next to her.

"I don't know. He's made some unique items before but nothing of this scale. I hope he didn't hurt himself or anything."

"He probably ran away after he realized he couldn't match my superior intellect." Peridot snarks and lets out a laugh.

The next day has come around and its morning at the crack of dawn back at the barn. Seeing as everyone is on a tight time-table with the cluster and all, and how Peridot's ego won't let them continue on construction of the drill, Marcus and Peridot opted to go the very next morning in their competition since it was already really late from yesterdays battle. It would give time for Peridot to make repairs, Marcus to make his robot, and for there to be better lighting in the sunlight.

The gems ignore the small gems boastful attitude in favor of keeping an eye out for the hybrids robot. They offered to help but Marcus told them no since he didn't want Peridot to call him a cheater or no fair if he were to receive outside help. After Pearl gave him her schematics, he threw a tarp over his helicopter and retreated into his base and hasn't come out since. Even going as far as to completely lock it down from anyone entering.

"Anything yet?" Steven asks as he comes up to her. Looking from him to the horizon from where Marcus's home is, she brings up the Barrett he left yesterday and scans one more time to see if she can spot him. After not seeing anything, she looks down and shakes her head no. "Mmmm." Steven moans and turns around before pulling out his phone. "I'm gonna call him." He says and he speed dials him.

"Oh c'mon!" Peridot says. "This is pointless! He's obviously not coming. We should just forget about him and focus on the Cluster already." She proposes but no one is listening to her. "Hey! I said he's—!"

"On his way." Garnet interrupts the green gem. She looks confused at the fusion but she simply moves her visor.

"He's coming!" Steven jogs back to everyone with his phone held up.

"What?!"

"I see him!" Pearl announces with a smile while looking through the scope.

"Where?!" Peridot demands while grabbing Pearl's sash. The gem in question looks at the imp crossly before pulling her sash from her grip. She then proceeds to pull out the magazine and bullet in the chamber before handing the rifle to Peridot.

"See for yourself." She grabs the rifle and the sheer size of the weapon looks comical in the small gems possession, especially when she tries to orient the weapon properly to look through it but fails miserably. "Ugh! Here." Pearl grumbles as she crouches to her height and moves the gems small hands to the proper spots. There is some grunting involved, as well as 'clod' being mentioned a few times, but Peridot is able to properly hold the weapon. She looks angrily at the smiling pearl before looking through the scope towards the general direction they said. A slight tilt from Pearl's finger, and Peridot is staring at what's heading for them. Her eyes widen as the weapon goes slack in her hands.


Making a giant robot overnight was something I was not expecting to do.

After it was clear I needed to prove myself, as much as I don't want to and instead make her change her mind, to the little green technician I went home and only got a few hours sleep before spending the rest of the night working on my new robot.

Thanks to the schematics that Pearl gave me, I had a general idea of how to get things started for my robot warrior. After my new memories were unlocked, and seeing how easily the gems were able to make their bots, I had a much easier time in making what I needed with all the materials I had on hand. With that being said, if I was making a new giant robot that was almost as tall as the barn and be on par with Peridot in my base, I needed a new entrance that was sorely overdue. So while I was working on my robot along with a few droids to quickly make parts, the majority of my droids, including the plug droid, had the task of tearing through the earth and a wall of my base upwards through the cliff. Just as I was done with my robot, my droids were able to make a large ramp going up from my base to the outside, where a large swatch of land between my house and the city would slide away and allow anything large and cumbersome to go through with ease.

To name a few, my motorcycle, my Falcon muscle car, my new dually truck, several tons of materials that can be carted in on a trailer, and a several feet tall giant robot that comes speeding out of the hole.

My robot speeds out of the entrance and after taking momentary flight, I slam into the ground and speed away while with a flick of a switch inside my cockpit, the entrance closes. My robots legs have two forms of legs, one where there are rails and wheels touching the ground that helps keep it stable and allows it to skate along the ground with ease, and the second transforms into regular legs and feet that allow it to walk, move and brace itself like Peridot's. It doesn't take me long to speed through the country side towards the barn with the sun starting to peek over the horizon. With it being pretty early in the morning, I didn't have to worry about many people spotting my robot speeding along since their most likely still asleep. As I go over the many hills leading to the barn, I smile at the screens in front of me that show the outside in front and to the sides as I spot my friends, and one acquaintance, standing in front of the barn. Also spotting the green robot that belongs to Peridot, I can't help but feel excited and tense about the whole thing. I'm basically bringing in an untested and prototype giant robot against another who's already had experience and I'm worried about what might happen. Granted in the end we are still going to work on the drill if I lose, but I don't want Peridot second guessing everything I do. That'll make the progress go even slower. I have to win this for a mutually agreed relationship between us.

Passing over the last hill, I stop just in front of everyone while angling my legs to the side that makes me slide to a stop in front of everyone. With the sun at my back, the light accentuates the full view of my creation.

The legs are slim but segmented multiple pieces of armor all over them and allows for slightly greater movement than what Pearls was. With the flick of another switch, the feet plates fold up, taking in the wheels and rails and adding the plates to make it regular again. The chest, which houses me and the cockpit, is somewhat bulky and wide but works to accommodate me. The arms are pretty thick as well with armored plates to add mass and armor, along with the fists being fully articulated like a person's hand. The head is mostly rounded with a T-shape orange visor along with two circles on both top sides of its head. The controls inside are numerous but the main part that allows me to be pretty accurate in how it moves is the goo linking console used on Peridot's ship. It's definitely weird with it being linked ot my mind and all at first but with even one hand, I can control how it moves pretty well. To top off the look of my robot, I painted the whole thing black with red accents going over the arms and legs, and blue stripes on the chest and back. The overall size makes it just a foot taller than Peridot's.

The Vindicator lives.

There is a moment of silence as everyone takes in my creation before I make it get down on one knee and angle it to the ground. Pulling a switch, the front of my cockpit pulls up and the other half down, allowing me to grab a bar on top and pull myself out onto the grassy floor. A mix of awe and open mouth gaping is plastered on everyone as they take in my entrance and my new attire. Taking a page from Pearl's book, I took the base design of the suits racers use in racing speedways and added my own touches. The main color of the suit is dark green with black stripes going down along the outsides of my arms from my shoulders, over my gems, which there is a zipper used to open and reveal them, and down to my black leather fingerless gloves. As I walk forward past my friends, their eyes still glued to my form, I stop in front of my opponent and smile. "Well, I'm here. Ready to get started?" I ask.

She continues to gape at me and Vindicator before shaking her head and glaring at me. "This changes nothing! I will prove that I am STILL the better builder just like how I beat her!" Peridot rants and says as she points to Pearl.

"Hm!" She turns away with a scoff and her head pointed upwards.

"We'll see about that." I mutter to her.

"YES! We'll see!" She shouts and starts climbing into her robot.

"Let's do this." I mutter and turn around before heading to my robot.

"Marcus." Just as I grab the bar to pull me into my seat, Steven's voice stops me. One hand on the bar and a foot in the pilots seat, I look back as he and the others come up to me. "Are you sure about this?" He asks a little worried.

The others have similar expressions of worry but I give them a reassuring look and smile. "Relax. I got this." I tell them and climb on in. Flicking a few switches, everyone steps back as Vindicator stands tall but the door closes. "I built this didn't I?!" I reply back to them just before the door closes up. With everything battened down and secured, I motion for Vindicator to move forward. Everyone else moves well-enough away from us to give us enough room to fight without fear of crushing anything or anyone. Peridot and I get to a respectable distance from each other and get ready.

Peridot lets out a series of laughs as we carefully circle ourselves. "Well, it seems you're not just a brute and can actually build something." She braces her legs and her claws start whirring in circular fashion. "You ready to get this over with?" She asks me.

I smile at the question she gives me as I too brace myself for our fight. Both of my arms move forward and the press of a button activates the metal tonfa's under Vindicator's arms. They fold outwards past the hands with a metal 'clang'. Seeing as how she accentuates her weapons, I do the same with mine and bring both my arms up. "Oh I'm ready. Question is…" I bring my arms down and swing them back up, crossing my arms in front of my face. "Are you?!" I yell through the loud speakers on my mech.

"Raaaah!" Peridot yells and charges forward.

"Haaaaa!" I charge forward too.


The Crystal Gems watch in awe as the two titans clash together. Peridot swings her right claw to strike Vindicators head but he ducks. He brings up his left tonfa and smacks the arm away before bringing its right up and striking her in the side. Peridot lets out a yelp of surprise at getting hit but quickly recovers as she brings her left claw up and slams it downward onto Vindicators right shoulder, forcing it to its knee. Marcus grunts from the impact and is dazed just enough where Peridot brings her right claw to her and backhands Vindicator away from her. The audience winces from the hit as the robot is sent flying away from them. The ground gets a large grove of earth torn away from Vindicator landing and sliding on the dirt. It remains motionless for a second before it slowly tries to ge+t up.

"Hahahahahaha!" Peridot laughs as she activates the springs on her bot and launches her high into the air. Marcus looks up and see the green robot preparing to back down to the ground, right on top of him. As she heads straight for him, Vindicator rolls to the side just before Peridot lands where he was laying. Taking the chance, Vindicator swings its right arm straight towards her legs. The tonfa connects with her knees, making her yell and her legs bend. Before he gets up, Vindicator thrusts his leg out and impacts it with Peridot's. The green gem lets out a strangled cry as her robot topples backwards onto her back. With his opportunity given, Vindicator stands up before bringing both his arms up and slams them down on top green robot. He hits around where Peridot is sitting to avoid hurting her… too much. But she is jostled around as again and again he pummels his robot. Before he can continue however, Peridot brings her right clawed arm up and grips Vindicator left wrist.

*Rrrrrr- Clang!*

The metal of the wrist warps for a second before with crushing prowess, the tonfa metal piece breaks off, sending it sailing through the air till it lands in front of Steven and the others. They look at the metal bit before staring back at the fight. Vindicator brings his right hand up and slams it onto the claw that's gripping him. The attack allows him to get loose and moves back to get some distance.

Peridot struggles to get up, letting out a series of grunts before she finally gets onto her two feet and smiles. "Ha! I got you!" She points her clawed arm to where Vindicators broken wrist is. "You might as well give up now. Who knows how long it'll be before your creation crumples of and falls apart." She teases the pilot. Marcus stares at Peridot before looking down at Vindicator's wrist. Losing one of his weapons puts him at a slight disadvantage but he's not out yet. The hand remains unresponsive for a second before the fingers curl up and forms a fist. With a smile, Marcus brings up both Vindicators arms up again in a boxers stance, showing he's ready to continue. Peridot grits her teeth and growls. "Fine! If that's how you want to play." She picks her robots right leg up into the air and slams it down. "Let's play!" She challenges and charges forward.

This time Vindicator doesn't move forward and waits for her to come into his range. When she gets close enough, he swings his left arm in a wide arc to the left and impacts her in the side of her robot. It dazes her for a second, allowing Vindicator to press his attack. He moves closer and brings his left leg up to impact against the side of Peridot's robot. The hit makes her fall to the ground but he continues. Bringing his right tonfa in an upwards angle he impacts his opponent, sending her back onto her feet. Peridot looks up from getting tossed around and before she can do anything the fight continues.

Vindicator punches her in the side with his fist, before hitting with his tonfa and does it a couple more times before ending with a Spartan kick to just below where Peridot sits, sending her flying back several feet until she lands on her back in a heap.

"WOOOO-HOOO! YEAAAAAH MARCUS!"

"Way to go brother!"

"You got this Marcus!"

"Take her down."

Marcus glances to the side at his family's cheering. He inclines Vindicator's body forward in a way of nodding to them before he steps forward towards the struggling green robot. "Had enough yet Peridot?" He asks her.

She grunts a bit before rolling onto her front and pushing herself up. "No! Not at all! I'm far from done!" She angrily shouts at him. Before he can get closer, she aims one of her claws at him. He looks confused since he's standing well out of her range, but it makes him even more confused as she smirks.

With the flick of a button, Peridot makes the outstretched claw shoot out from her arm, making it sale through the air straight towards Vindicator. Marcus can only widen his eyes in surprise before the claw impacts the pilot block. With an evil smirk, she hits another button and the claw activates.

Both pincers start to constrict and close on where the pilot is being housed. "Marcus!" The spectators yell his name as the metal starts to warp horribly, allowing sparks to start flying in every which way from the action as it dangerously gets crushed.

"Damn." Marcus grunts as he watches his monitors start to crack and go on the fritz. Quickly taking the initiative, he grab a lever above him and yanks it as hard as he can. With pressurized air being released, the front door of his seat is shot outwards, giving his vision back and forcing the claw crushing him to be dislodged. Peridot grunts as the claw is sent back to her as she gets back onto her feet. She growls at seeing him best her so quickly. Her action may have been shortened so quickly but it was enough to temporarily break his controls as evident with him frantically grabbing and hitting switches in his cockpit. Seeing her chance, she charges at him.


"C'mon c'mon c'mon!" I repeat over and over again as I try to get my control working. Without my monitors and controls in front of me, I've severely limited my control schemes. Activating my backup controls, the two sticks controlling the arms move closer for me to grab them and panels move up for me to put my feet in, giving me control of Vindicators legs. "Alright, now I just- Arh!" I grunt as a powerful force knocks into me, jostling me horribly in my seat before I suddenly find myself on my back and staring at the sky. Before I can get up, Peridot lands on my robot and looks down at me directly since both of our cockpits are now open for the both of us to see each other.

"Ha! You lost!" She yells as she stares down at me. "What, did you think you could defeat me? Yes I imagine one-on-one without the use of our technology you could best me, but this is my domain! I'm the Homeworld technician and engineer built for this stuff!" She yells down at me with increased malice. "Your nowhere near my level! You're not smart enough to defeat me!" I flinch at each of her words as she gets louder and louder. "You're simply a fighter! A brute! YOU'RE…." She looks like she's struggling with something before gritting her teeth.

"YOU'RE… A MONSTER!"

An echo goes off in the country side, the last word she uttered echoing from everyone to hear.

I stare at her in surprise, before everything starts to come back to me.


The first time.

"Marcus… no…" She cries out as the beast continues moving, not at all deterred by the mention of that name. "Please no… don't… Don't you… don't you remember me?" She tries desperately to talk it down but the creature doesn't listen, it just continues moving closer and closer with saliva dripping down its maw. "I don't… I don't… You can't…" Lapis's words start to become mismatched and she closes her eyes as it starts crawling over her, its limbs being placed on each side of her, trapping her.


The second time.

The monster takes up nearly the entire hallway and stares down at them with blood red eyes. All three of their weapons shake in their hands, unable to reload their weapons due to the sheer fear that this thing exhibits onto them. They continue to back away from it but for every step they take back, the size of the creature dwarfs two. They finally get the sense to start reloading their weapons but its too late. The monster couches low to the ground, and pounces.


I look down, a shadow going over my eyes as I remember the times I became, literally, a monster. The lives I almost took, the lives I did take.

"You're right." I say in a low voice.

"Huh?" Peridot says in confusion, no doubt not expecting me to readily agree with her.

"I am a monster." I say with a bit more volume. I look straight at her, tears getting close to break through my eyes, as I press a button on controls. The two circles on the sides of Vindicator's head open up. "But that WILL NOT DEFINE MEEEE!"

I press the triggers.

*BRRRRRRRRRR*

"AHHHHH!" Peridot yells in surprise as multiple .50 caliber bullets escape from the barrels on the side of his head and pepper Peridot's robot. I don't aim for her specifically, instead the bullets impact all around her and the outer armor of her bot, sending spark and ricochets all over. She brings her arms in front of her face as some sort of protection and it's just the distraction I need as she steps back. I quickly manipulate Vindicator to get to his feet but I don't let up on the bullets. I take a few steps forward before finally stopping the onslaught, and attack.

"Hraa!" I yell as I bring my left fist forward and punch Peridot's robot. She recoils from the hit but I continue. Bringing the right tonfa up, I hit her and continue to hit her again and again. Another fist punch leads to a backhand with the same fist while I do the same with the tonfa. Peridot eventually manages to grab Vindicator's right arm and employ's the crushing action just under his elbow but quickly punching the joint in her claw causes it to seize up, allowing me to pull it out but not without some armor pieces were broken off. We eventually start to trade blows against each other as things start to get more intense for the both us. Pieces of our robots start to fly off but we continue to fight regardless.

Eventually, we lock arms with each other and glare at each other with gritted teeth. "Why do you continue fighting?! It's pointless!" She shouts and pushes a bit harder on me.

I grind my teeth as I stare angrily at her. "I can't stop fighting! I will NEVER stop fighting!" I shout back with renewed vigor, forcing her to step back this time. "I can't afford to ever give up!" I shoot a shot burst of bullets at her, making her recoil and allows me to hook my right arm under her legs. "You think I'm some brainless brute but I'm NOT!" I hoist her up over my head.

"Whoa!" Peridot yelps as she suddenly is looking directly up at the sky.

Already I can hear the metal in Vindicator's arms strain from the immense weight of Peridot's robot but I don't stop. "I am a Gem-Human hybrid! And you… WILL…!"

*RRRRRR-CRINK*

The supports in Vindicators arms strain and finally give. The previously broken left wrist snaps and the right arm breaks, sending Peridot to the ground.

"FAAAAAALLLLL!"

*CRAAAACCKK!*

With a fierce cry, I bring Vindicator's right leg up just as Peridot comes down towards the ground. With a loud crack of metal breaking that echoes multiple times, Vindicator executes the backbreaker on her robot. Her entire robot almost splits in half from the action, sending a large going horizontally along its body as it rolls onto its back.

Steven and the gems all stare in open-mouthed amazement at the action as the only sound is the sparks flying from both machines.

*Thud*

As well as the right arm of Vindicator. Once everything settles, Vindicator goes onto his knees with a loud thud. As soon as he does, all remaining controls quickly shut down. 'He's spent… no more.' I think. Vindicator can no longer fight, but as I look at Peridot she is not in any better shape. After letting my controls drop, I step out of Vindicator and slowly walk over to my opponent.

"Nah. Arrrr! Gah!" Peridot struggles as she tries to get out of her broken machine before falling off the side flat on her back. She groans as she stares up at the sky but as I step into her view, she sighs. "So… you won." She says depressed. "You are the better builder and I will listen to whatever you instruct on the construction of the drill." She drones off some more before finishing with a sigh.

I look down at the defeated and depressed gem before I extend a hand to her. She looks confused at the gesture before I shake my hand a little, gesturing for her to take it. After a few more seconds, she gives me her hand, allowing me to pull her onto her feet. She stands up and looks away from me. "Peridot… I don't care about being the better builder. I'm good with human and some gem tech… but if we are talking about straight up using gem tech in general, you have me beat. No doubt about that." I tell her. Truth of the matter is that while I am good at working with Homeworld technology, I am only good at reverse engineering it with human tech to make it useable to me. I have not the faintest idea of how to manufacture, keep it properly maintained and so on and so forth. "I mostly jury-rig what I make. Human tech is my forte. Homeworld is yours. I won't deny that. I only did this fight so I can prove to you that I can help with the drill like with Pearl." I gesture to the gem as she and the others start making their way to us. "Not someone who can just sit on the sidelines and not do anything." She looks at me surprised at my statements to her. I crouch to her level and look at her directly. "The Cluster threatens everyone Peridot. You, me, humanity, the Crystal gems… Steven." She glances at my brother before looking back at me. "I just want you to make sure you know that we have more that can help than just you and Pearl." I sincerely tell her. She may have tried to kill us and hurt us in the past, but as I see here now in her base form, I think I can put my malice aside. I extend my hand in a handshake to her. "Your not alone on this I think we can do a better job if we work together. Can we please put our differences aside and work together to save this planet?" I ask her sincerely. Despite everything and our differences, I do hope Peridot agrees on my view on the matter.

She stares at me with this unreadable expression, but as she stares at my hand her mouth slightly parts open. She switches views from me and my hand before she steps past me. At first I feel bad at the idea of her not agreeing with me, but she doesn't go that far before she stares up at Vindicator. The machine continues to let out sparks every now and then but still remains somewhat functional with a little tweaking. She stares at him for a bit before staring at the gems, who all have hopeful expressions on their face from my words. She then looks down and closes her eyes as she clenches her fists. She then looks towards me firmly. "Come with me."

Without another word, she simply walks off. Now all of us are sporting looks of confusion as she walks away with her hands behind her back. "Uhhh, okay." I say hesitantly and follow her. As I pass by the others, I give them a shrug before following after her. 'Huh, wonder where we're going?'


Sometime later and one warp travel later, we make it to our apparent destination.

"What… is this?" I ask in awe at where we are. What's in front of me is what looks to be some sort of giant saucer like ship buried partly in the ground with giant vines and leaves covering it all.

"An Era-1 derelict Homeworld space ship. It was left here during the rebellion and has been inoperable ever since." She quickly explains to me and walks towards it.

"Oh… well what are we doing here then?" I ask her after understanding what she said. 'A ship from the rebellion… amazing.'

"To get something. Follow me." She answers without stopping. Without much more to say, we continue moving through the ancient vessel. While Peridot moves through the vessel, I can't help but stare all around me at how this place is. When compared to the more modern gem tech I faced back when Peridot and Jasper first invaded, I can't help but be amazed at the difference in architecture between this saucer ship, and the hand ship from before.

"Man, this place is crazy." I can't help but voice my thoughts.

"Yes well, for a few thousand year old ship it is still somewhat… hardy."

"What do you mean? Whoa." I turn to ask her but I almost fall in a large hole before quickly side-stepping it. "What happened here?" I ask because the giant hole in the floor and the broken cogs above look more recently broken than the rest of the thousands of years old derelict ship.

"This was a temporary base of operations for me while I was hiding from you Crystal Gems. That hole was from a failed trap that your friends escaped from before they found me." She explains. 'Oh yeah, I think I remember the others mentioning something like that happening.' I think before she continues. "This may be completely unable to fly but it's subsystems still proved operational useful to suit my needs." She says as she scrapes her hand along a piece of a dusty wall. That wall soon leads to a particularly destroyed doorway into another room. "This… is the man control room."

"Whoa." I mouth as I stare at the controls and monitors of the room. Despite how the room is, I can't help but look at the giant hole in the ceiling. "What happened there?" I ask pointing to the hole.

"My escape attempt." She answers simply. "I got away… but Steven was able to take my leg." She answers slightly depressed.

"Oh yeah, I remember him telling me about that." I reply with a nod.

"Yeeeesss, that reminds me. Why weren't you here trying to apprehend me like the others were?" She asks looking back at me. The both of us are standing in the middle of the control room looking at each other. "From what I remember since I first saw you, you've always been with or at least near Steven and those Crystal Gems." She tells me.

I look at her suspiciously. "So?" I ask with crossed arms.

"So why weren't you? I imagine if you were here you would have been better able to help them capture me what with your… special traits." She hesitates the last words. From how she says it, I can only imagine she's talking about the… special part of myself.

"I was… dealing… and preoccupied with some stuff. Very… important stuff." I grimly say as I look away from her. The memories of what I had to deal are something I was hoping to forget, but let's be honest, there is no way that is going to happen at all… ever. "I'd rather not talk about it, yet."

She stares at me for a few seconds before shrugging with closed eyes. "If that's how you want it." She concedes to what I want and walks deeper into the room.

"Hey hey Peridot." I quickly get her attention.

"What?" She asks a little impatient.

I fold my fingers over each other and rub my hands in nervousness. 'I can't believe I'm going to ask her of this.' I take a deep breath and look at her. "Can you… not mention to the others what you saw and faced back at the beach when you first arrived? You know when I… changed." I hesitantly say to her.

Her impatient look turns to surprise at the sincerity I ask her of this. She looks unsure at first of how to respond, her face going through multiple phases before looking confused. "Um, okay then." She agrees, letting a huge weight off my chest.

I let out a breath of relief and look at her gratefully. "Thank you Peridot. That… thing doesn't speak for me and I don't know what the others will say if they found out."

"Well, it sounds like you have a lot to think about then?" She asks with a smug smile. I should be angry with her but really, I'm not, just more so grateful that she'll keep this to her.

"I do. I do."

"In that case, as a peace offering, and a bit of proof that I will keep my word so long as you will not hurt or shatter me…" She says the sentence in a sort of question, to which I nod, making her smile. "Allow me to give you this." She turns away from me and walks over to a compartment as the consoles. I step up behind her to see she's staring carefully at the wall. "Aha!" She triumphantly says and walks to piece of the wall before pressing a button. The wall lights up into a green square and it pulls like a cabinet. "I installed this little compartment as a means to hide stuff should you all come looking for me. Unfortunately for me, I was only able to put in one thing before they came knocking at my door. She explains as she blindly moves her hand through the cabinet. The problem is that apparently she designed it when she had her limb enhancers on so her small form now only allows her to barely reach in with one harm and blindly search through the thing. "Fortunately for you… c'mon where is it?!" She angrily states with a bit angst in her voice. "I know I left it- There you are!" She excitedly says and pulls something out. I don't get the chance to see it as she pulls it out in front of her. She looks like she's looking at it for a second and with a sigh, she turns around.

My eyes widen as I see what it is that she's holding. "Is… is that…?"

"Yes, I believe this is yours." She confirms, and extends both her hands with her palms open, holding my Colt Anaconda.

'Wow… it's… been so long.' I can't help but think as my hand slowly grips the handle. As I bring it up, I stare at the weapon that was always intended to be my backup in case of emergencies. The frame is still pristine and looks just as beautiful and deadly as I remember. I can't help to flip open the cylinder and examine the chambered bullets.


*BANG*

A shot rings out.

Both of them stop at the sudden noise.

An uncomfortable silence falls onto the two of them at who shot.

A trail of blood flows down the monsters chest.

It looks down at a small hole that formed on its rapidly reddening fur. It brings a clawed hand up and places it on the wound before taking it away, seeing the red transfer to its furred clawed hand. It looks up with widened surprised eyes at Jasper at the turn of events, who is surprised as well.

*BANG*BANG*


The memory of when Peridot first fired the gun surfaces in Marcus's mind as he stares at the three spent bullet casings in the chamber. Peridot's face forms one of worry as she sees the neutral expression that adorns his. Now that she thinks about it, she doesn't have anymore leverage in making sure the gems don't shatter or keep her bubbled for all eternity like the corrupted ones in the temple.

And now here she was, alone with one of the most dangerous creatures she has ever met, and she just gave him the gun that she shot him with. 'Yeah, probably should have thought this through some more.'

*Clink*

The sound of metal impacting the ground completely shocks her from her thoughts. The empty room accentuating the impact noise quite loudly for a tiny piece. She looks on as he slowly empties the chamber.

*Clink*

The slowness he does it, the sound each shell casing makes as they bounce off the ground make Peridot even more worried about what he might do.

*Clink*

The last empty casing falls from the chamber, leaving the three remaining intact bullets ready to be fired, should he need to. By this point Peridot is very subtly shaking at what he might do to her now that they are alone with her being completely defenseless.

The cold blue eyes bore into her past the gun, making her even more scared of the idea that this is where she will be—

*… Clink… Clink… Clink*

Peridot looks down confused, worry no longer evident on her form as the final three intact bullets fall from the guns cylinder, leaving the dangerous weapon harmless for now.

*Click*

She looks up as Marcus snaps the cylinder back into the weapon and proceeds to place it into the back of his pants belt, with a smile no less on his face. He smiles down at her, not a creepy or evil smile but one that reads sincerity. He crouches to her level and extends his hand to her.

"Thank you Peridot. I appreciate it."

And as usual, I completely did more than I originally thought I was going to do. Seriously I thought I was going to do the fight and that's it, but I forgot to take into account the descriptions and that last part surprised me a little too. I didn't expect things to get this emotional the very least but nonetheless I think I'm alright with this.

Onto me now. I recently had gotten a copy of an original Xbox and I can't tell you how happy I am to have it in my possession. The game in question is an oldy from a series I love called Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes. The reason why I am happy to have this is because I never finished playing the game. My original xbox broke before I could finish playing it and broke the copy I had. Since then, I have been hounded for years of not being able to play this game because it was the one game that was not on the list of backwards compatible games for the 360. It's predecessor, Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders was on the list, which I still had fun playing, but I was never able to get another original Xbox to play Heroes. With Microsoft announcing the new list of original xbox games coming to the Xbox One X, you have no idea how happy I was at the idea and possibility that I'd finally be able to play it after so so long. It's still a long shot because I don't know many people who played the series but the idea is still amazing to think about.

Also just so you all know, my high for Steven Universe after the recent bomb dropped has passed so after the next chapter, I'm going to go back to taking turns in working on all my stories.

Thank you all for reading, hope you enjoyed the fight, fav, follow, review, don't, whatever you feel like, and as always, have a great day and have fun reading.