"Great stars above they're everywhere!"
They were everywhere! Small, dark green, with a mane of white like a lion's. A short, insect-like body with four ragged black legs and a rear that ended in a sharp pincer. Their heads were black too and, as far as Steven could tell, lacked eyes, and most of the head was taken up by a large, powerful mandible.
Steven was cowering from then on his bed, clutching his blanket around himself and whimpering as Spinel stood guard around him and made sure none of the nasty creatures could get to him.
"None of these Nephrites have gems!" Pearl said; every time she stabbed one, two more would gang up on her.
"These are Stark Beetles." Garnet said as she smashed a small group of them into dust, "There has to be a spawner somewhere."
"Stark Beetles?" Amethyst said, cracking her whip to strike one of the creatures, "They look more like centipedes to me!"
Spinel and Amethyst gasped, and said as one, "Centipeetles!"
Steven was reminded of that day when he saw those creatures again. They were just as he remembered: insect like, slobbering jaws full of corrosive green spit. And they came in the same multitudes they had all those years ago, with the same need to bite and tear and destroy anything in their path.
"Ugh!" Pearl stabbed a nearby stark beetle and came back-to-back with Amethyst, "It's another infestation!"
Garnet stood on a higher rock, crushing any of the creatures that tried to get a nip at her. "The spawner must be nearby."
"Good!" Pearl said, "That means we can finally finish this!"
Garnet shouted as one of the creatures spat its toxin over her and her rock, but all it took was a simple shake to get the slime off of her. The centipeetles looked offended that she had overcome them so easily, but one of them took the opportunity provided by the distraction to latch its beak around Amethyst's leg.
Amethyst screamed. Pearl turned around and lunged her spear at the monster and it was gone in a cloud in an instant.
"Amethyst, are you okay?"
Amethyst shrugged. "Been better."
Spinel swung her mallet down on a group of them, sending multiple into the oblivious and others flying through the air.
Steven ran over to Pearl. "What can I do?"
Pearl shoved Steven to the side just in time to stab an offending monster. "You can stay out of the way!" Then she was off again.
"But I could-"
"They're all coming from the tower!" Garnet said, "The spawner must be inside.
"We can't go in there!" Pearl objected, "It's unstable from all the corrosion!"
"I'd hate to say it," Spinel said, "But I agree with Pearl."
"Then we'll just bring the whole place down!" Garnet jumped down from her rock, and a few of the centipeetles went flying. "Amethyst."
Garnet held out her hand.
Steven felt a wave of panic wash over him.
"Garnet, no!" Pearl said quickly, "Steven's here! We need to be careful!"
"We don't need to be careful." Garnet's visors gleamed, "We just need to be huge."
Realization washed over Steven. "Wait, are you guys gonna fuse?"
"Yeah!" Amethyst destroyed another creatures, "Let's mash it up! Bigger, badder, better!"
She gave a loud cheer and ran over.
"Garnet, please." Pearl pleaded, "Sugilite can be a bit… unstable! Why not Sardonyx or Chalcedony?"
Garnet ignored Pearl's pleas. "Synchronize."
Garnet's gems glowed a bright magenta hue, and music hung in the air; a deep, steady beat matched with a crazed warping that brought the differences of both.
Pearl covered Steven's eyes.
"Come on Pearl, I wanna see!"
The music continued to surround them.
"What's happening? Why is there music?"
"They're synchronizing." Spinel said.
"What does that mean?"
"It's a type of dance prior to a fusion. Each dance and each sound is unique to each fusion." Pearl explained slowly, "This just happens to be Sugilite's dance."
There was a sudden, jarring screech and a rush of powerful laughter, then a voice. Not quite Amethyst, not quite Garnet. "It feels great to be me!"
Steven finally managed to get away from Pearl's blocking hands and see the outcome of what he had missed. Where there once stood two was only one: Powerful, violet and black. Ripped pants of both colors and a torn shirt much the same with a hole cut to allow Amethyst's gem to breath. A mane of black the same color as Garnet's hair, but with the wild nature that belonged to Amethyst. Visors like Garnet's covered the two lower eyes, but left a third at the top exposed. Two biceps splitting into four forearms.
Many of the centipeetles had the sense to stop attacking, and backed up as they stared at their new enemy in mounting horror. Steven almost wanted to join them in their fear, but another part of him told him that he was completely safe.
"That's Sugilite?"
Sugilite grinned a toothy grin. "You got it, baby! Hey, Steven." She waved two of her arms, "Wanna see something cool?"
"Yeah!"
Steven went to run to them, but was held back by Spinel on his right and Pearl on his left. Both gems glared at each other for daring to copy them, but then turned their attention back to Steven.
"Come on guys," Steven pleaded, "I wanna see Sugilite's trick!"
"Yeah." Sugilite growled out, "Let the boy see."
Pearl huffed. "He just see just fine from back here."
"Yeah!" Spinel agreed.
"Ugh." Sugilite scoffed, "Picky, picky, picky. Check this out."
On Sugilite's two upper arms appeared gauntlets very similar to Garnet's, but more purple than red, and one of her lower arms reached into her amethyst gem and produced a whip like Amethyst's, only bigger. She grinned, and then brought the weapons together in an explosion of violet, and what came out in the end was both and neither; like a fusion in itself. A whip-like handle ending in the two gauntlets with their palms against each other.
Steven gasped.
"Sugilite's flail..." Worry dripped into Spinel's voice.
"Oh dear." Pearl whispered.
"Haha! You like that little man!" Sugilite grinned.
"Yeah..."
Everyone was shocked at Steven's worried tone, but none so more than him.
"I mean, yeah!" He concentrated on making himself sound excited, he was excited! But then, why didn't he sound like it? "Are you gonna smash stuff with your wrecking-ball-thingy?"
Sugilite clicked her tongue. "That's the plan! Now," She tossed her flail over her shoulder, "Where should I start?"
Steven hummed. "There!" Steven pointed to a pillar, "Do that one!"
Sugilite didn't need to be told twice. She wound up her weapon and brought it down hard against the pillar Steven had pointed out, shattering it into a million peices upon impact. Without the support to hold it up, it brought down a section of ceiling with it, and with the celling a downpour of angry, snapping centipeetles. Then they saw just what they were snapping and quickly clamped their jaws shut, and not a second after Sugilite had already brought her flail down on top of them.
Pearl put her hands on Steven's shoulders and held him tight. "Steven, I think we should go."
"What? But this is awesome!"
Sugilite smashed another pillar, dangerously close to the group, and this time the worry Steven felt was genuine. Worry and fear both. Pearl intercepted a piece of debris that would have otherwise struck Steven, and Spinel worked to keep them upright through the windstorm kicked up by Sugilite's great size.
"That's it!"
Pearl picked up Steven.
"What are you doing?" Spinel asked, her arms wrapped around her godson stretching to accommodate the added height.
"I'm sending Steven home!" Pearl said at once, "Let go of him."
Pearl made an attempt to pull Steven away, but Spinel was relentless.
"And how are you gonna do that?"
"I'm gonna bubble him and send him back to the temple! We've transported organics that way before, and Steven won't be any different. So please let go."
"Should I be the one?"
"What? No! My bubbles are way more secure!"
Another shockwave, and more debris flying past them. Pearl and Spinel quickly nodded in a compromise.
"We'll send him together." Spinel said.
"Fair enough."
Pearl gripped Steven's right half, and Spinel grabbed his left. They both hoisted him up into the air as their light began to encase him.
"Wait!" Steven objected, "Don't I get a say in this?"
"Nope!"
Pink encased his left, and a milky white on his right. In the middle, they met at a standstill, refusing to merge.
"Now, this might sting a little."
'A little' was an understatement. In an instant, he was seeing stars and tasting light. Like a warp, only without the warp stream in between. He was bubbled, then faced with an intense blankness that his mind struggled to fill, and though it lasted an eternity, the next second in was in a dark, heated room surrounded by other bubbled gems; through his warped sense of color, he could see indigo, red, blue, purple, white, and two different shades of pink.
"Am I in the temple?"
His echoing voice was familiar; like the time he had spent with Connie, only alone and in a much tighter space. He could still breath, and that was the important thing.
"This is super freaky!"
He tried to press on the bubble, but it felt solid as stone and just as cold.
"Guess I just have to wait until they get back..."
Spinel dodged another piece of flying debris. Pearl didn't seem so keen on dodging, and kicked the chunk of rock in half instead.
"Watch it!" A second, smaller rock hit Pearl on the head.
Spinel flinched. "Ouch, right in the gem!"
Pearl rubbed her gemstone and scowled. "Ugh! Sugilite! You're just too much!"
Sugilite growled. "Maybe you're just too little!"
"Sugilite, this has gone on long enough!" Pearl summoned her spear, and it was clear the threat wasn't meant for the scattered centipeetles, "Just take down the structure, find the mother, and unfuse!"
"Why don't you bite me, little gem? But now that you mention it..." Sugilite tapped her chin, grinned, and then raised her flail high. She spun it around one, twice, and three times before sending it flying through the last remaining pillars. "TIMBER!"
Pearl screeched and ducked for cover as the destruction reigned all around her. Sugilite seemed oblivious to the danger and only laughed as she smashed some of the rocks as they came crashing down. This made the cloud of dust larger, the rubble smaller, and the situation far more dangerous. Pearl did her best to protect her gemstone from the onslaught of stone.
She felt durable arms wrap around her waist and pull her under cover.
"Thank you." Pearl said curtly to her pink savior.
Spinel said nothing.
After the dust had begun to clear, all that there was, was the laughter of Sugilite. Sugilite, holding the massive, spawner Nephrite by her pincers.
"Hey, check it out!" She hissed, "The Spawner! It's a big one too!"
She shook the terrified corruption and the nephrite gave a wail and attempted to lean up and bite her attacker.
"Ahahaha! This one's snappy!"
"Sugilite!" Spinel quickly stepped out of cover.
"Here we go..." Pearl knew exactly what to expect.
"Stop tormenting that poor creature and just poof her already!"
Sugilite groaned, and slumped. "Always the hero! Why can't you just get off my back?"
Pearl took the opening to fire an arrow at the Nephrite, piercing deep into her chest and, with a final screech, exploded into nothingness. Her gemstone dropped to the ground below. What little of her spawn that remained followed suit.
Sugilite's attention immediately snapped to Pearl.
"Seriously? I was just playing around." She knelt down and took the Nephrite gemstone between her clawed fingers. "Hey, think I could crack this thing open like a walnut."
"Sugilite, don't you dare!" Spinel warned.
"I'm only kidding. Geeze." Sugilite bubbled the gemstone and sent it away, "And I thought you were the fun one!"
Pearl walked up beside Spinel. "Okay, now that the Nephrite is secured, you can unfuse."
"Sure, I could..." Sugilite waved her arms. "But where's the fun in that!"
"Sugilite..." Spinel said in a warning tone.
Sugilite turned to motion to the destruction around her. "I haven't had this much fun in centuries!"
"It's not meant to be fun," Pearl said, "It was a job, which is over."
"The fun will never be over! But you know what I am over?"
Sugilite raised her flail, laughing that maniacal laugh of her.
"Your attitude!"
She brought the flail down hard on Pearl.
Pearl could feel her light begin to scatter, dissipating in all different directions, and she focused all of her energy into her gemstone. Into not doing what her sense and body desperately screamed at her to do. She could feel the energy rushing into her pearl, forcing it into overdrive to hold her together. Pressure, rising pressure and fracturing and cracking.
Then the pressure was lifted, but the pain was only rising.
Sugilite looked down at her, swinging her flail over her shoulder.
"Oh, stars above." Pearl rubbed her gemstone, and traced her finger down the thin crack in its center. "I need Steven."
Spinel was at her side in an instant, kneeing down in the mud and closely examining the cracked gemstone. She growled, gritted her teeth, and stood to face Sugilite, "That's it, we're leaving! You can join us at the temple when you figure yourself out."
Sugilite didn't care. "Whatever, spinster!"
Spinel helped Pearl to stand.
"Let's just hope Steven can fix that, otherwise we're gonna have to make another trip to Rose's fountain."
Steven wasn't sure how long he had been waiting in that bubble.
It couldn't had been long before he'd seen an indigo bubble appear close to him, containing a green and black gemstone he assumed to belong to whatever the 'spawner' was. Even later still, he heard the sound of approaches voices and footsteps, and then he saw the gems that the voices belonged to: Pearl and Spinel.
"There you are!" Pearl said; a bandage was wrapped around her forehead for some reason.
Spinel stretched her arms up, grabbed Steven's bubble, and pulled it safely down to the ground before popping it. Steven fell out and landed on his stomach with a thud.
He expected immediate relief at being freed of the confines, but all that he felt was intense pain. Burning and freezing, hot and cold. Anger and fear and pain and anguish and overwhelming sadness. Why was he like this? Why couldn't he control himself? Why did he hurt those people, why was he still hurting? He just wanted the pain to stop. He had to bite, had to hiss, had to scratch and fight and attack and listen and command and run and hide all at the same time. He was on fire and he created ice all around him, and then he was flying through the sky on wings of water, and then he was falling to the earth with nothing to stop him but the wind that stung against his body.
He had two eyes, three eyes, one eye. Two arms, three arms, four arms, six arms. Two heads, two gems, two bodies one mind. He was toxic and he was a healer and he could fight but he didn't want to. He saw a bright light, and then there was darkness, and he saw lava and pulled swords out of it. He was protecting others, and he was being protected by others, and he was scaling walls of ice and diving deep into magma pits and boiling water. He was fighting in a great war, and he was on both sides. He was stabbing someone, and he was being stabbed. He was being corrupted and changes and manipulated and broken.
He fell in love and he fell out of it, he felt deep hatred for himself, and then he was loving himself.
And then it was all over.
"Steven! Steven!"
Steven blinked, and he was himself again. He was no longer in that room, surrounded by all those feelings and memories that faded as soon as he opened his own eyes. The only ones around him were Spinel and Pearl, not the soldiers fighting beside him and fighting against him and fighting for him. Fighting for... who?
"What happened?"
"You collapsed." Pearl said.
"I did?" Steven worked to sit up, and Spinel helped him.
"Yeah!" Spinel said, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah I..." Steven struggled to think of an excuse, "I think I'm just thirsty."
"Steven, I need you to heal me."
Before Steven could ask what Pearl meant, she had removed the bandage from her forehead to show a thin, but nonetheless dangerous, crack disrupting her usually flawless gemstone.
"Omigosh!" Steven covered his mouth, "What happened?"
"Sugilite happened." Pearl groaned, "Ugh! I knew this would happen! Rose..." Pearl quickly covered her mouth with her hands, and when she pulled them away, she said slowly, "Rose would have never let them form Sugilite. Chalcedony and Sardonyx would have been just fine." Pearl kneeled down beside Steven. "I need you to heal me Steven."
Steven blinked. "But... I've never healed a gemstone before! Maybe we could just go to mom's fountain?"
Pearl shook her head. "You need to learn to do this, Steven. We won't always be able to rely on the fountain."
Steven looked beyond Pearl, to Spinel. Spinel gave a single nod urging Steven on. Steven took a deep breath.
"Um. Do you... think I can just lick my hand and put it on your gemstone, or do I have to actually... lick you?"
Pearl shivered, but Steven couldn't tell if it was from the crack or from disgust; both, perhaps.
"Please at least try the first one, okay?"
Steven nodded.
He wasn't sure who was more nervous; him, or Pearl. He built up a great deal of spit in his mouth, then let it dribble into a pile on his hand. Pearl shivered again, and gagged from the sight alone. Steven looked to her pitifully.
"Sorry."
The moment Steven approached her with the handful, Pearl screeched and fell backward, trying desperately to crawl away.
"No, no! I changed my mind! Let's go to the fountain! LET'S GO TO THE FOUNTAIN!"
Steven didn't falter. He followed Pearl until he had her backed up against a wall, and then he pressed his wet hand to her gemstone. In a flash of pink, the crack in its center was quick to fill with rose-shaped light, filling in the gap and bridging the gemstone together to restore it.
Steven gazed in astonishment. "IT WORKED!"
"Oh!" Pearl clapped her hands together, "Yay Steven!"
Then she seemed to remember what 'it' was, and then it was time for her to panic again. She screamed, reached into the very gemstone that had just been healed, and pulled out a wet wipe. She used it to clean her gemstone, all the while screaming about how unsanitary is was, and how much cleaner Rose's tears had been. Steven stopped listening the moment she started talking.
Spinel put both her hands on Steven's shoulder, and pulled herself behind him a stretchy bound.
"Spinel, why did Sugilite hurt Pearl?" Steven asked, looking over his shoulder at her.
Spinel didn't seem to want to look at him. "Sugilite is unstable, Steven. Think of a wild animal, or a gem mutant, except with a more... violent mindset."
"Well, why don't they unfuse? Why didn't they come back?"
"They... need time to calm down. It might take a while for their synchronization to wear off."
"Yes." Pearl finally seemed satisfied that her gemstone was clean, or at least clean enough. "Complete synchronization is a very delicate operation, and sometimes the risks outweigh the rewards."
"I still don't understand why they had to do that." Steven said, "When you and Amethyst formed Opal there wasn't any music! You didn't even dance! How rude."
"Not rude, Steven." Pearl corrected, "Necessary. Amethyst and I didn't have time for a proper fusion, given the... situation at the time. Let me assure you, it was complete and utter chaos inside Opal for the time we remained fused." Pearl laughed and waved her hand. "Had it been a proper synchronization, we would have stayed fused for long longer, and been much more stable."
"Is that why Opal seemed to... air-headed?"
Pearl looked offended, and huffed.
"No, Opal is just... like that. And you didn't need to be so rude about it."
Steven felt bad, until Spinel tapped him on his shoulder and he saw her with her tongue hanging out, her eyes spinning around, and swirling her finger in a crazy motion around the side of her head. Then Steven laughed in a pure, unmatched joy, and Spinel laughed along.
"This is hardly a laughing matter." Pearl scoffed. "We have a dangerous fusion out there!"
"Sugilite has never hurt a human before." Spinel said, and then her certainly grew to conern, "Then again, they've never been given the chance... oh."
"Exactly." Pearl put a hand on her hip, "We have to go back out there and force her to unfuse!"
"Um. How do you expect us to poof a fusion of a quartz soldier and Garnet? Rose could barely do that!"
"Well we have to try! We'll take Steven upstairs, and then we gotta go back out there and find them!"
"But I want to help!" Steven protested, and was met with a small pat from Pearl.
"I know you do Steven, but you're not ready to handle anything like this!"
Steven looked to his friend for help. "Spinel?"
Spinel wouldn't look at him. "She's right Steven, you gotta stay here."
Steven felt himself turn cold, and every emotion he might have had in that moment was blocked out in that intense chill that made him want to cry, but he was too cold to cry. You were supposed to be angry and hot and aggravated when you cried, or else frozen in your fear but that was a completely different type of cold. This cold was empty and endless.
"I always have to stay here. You guys always go on the cool missions, and I have to stay behind."
"Steven, we have thousands more years of experience than you do." Pearl explained, and it only made Steven angrier despite her gentle tone.
"HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO GET EXPERIENCE IF YOU DON'T LET ME GO ANYWHERE!" Steven slapped his hands over his mouth.
"Steven!" Pearl gasped, and even Spinel looked shocked.
"I don't know why I said that!" Steven insisted, and truly he didn't.
"You've been acting weird all day." Spinel commented. "Maybe you're sick?"
"I'm not sick. I least, I don't feel sick."
"Well what do you feel?"
"I feel... cold. And hot. Happy! And sad. Most of all I just want..." Steven couldn't think of anything.
"To get away from the Burning Room?" Pearl suggested softly.
"Yeah." Steven was relieved that someone was able to put it to words.
"Then let's just go upstairs and get you something to eat." Spinel said.
"And something to drink." Pearl added, "Dehydration is no laughing matter!"
"And you just hang out why we go and search for Sugilite."
Steven didn't want to. He wanted to go with them, to help them find Sugilite. To bring back Garnet and Amethyst and make his family whole again. But just felt so tired, and he wasn't even sure he would have the energy to drink, though he was thirsty. For some reason, hunger was the last thing on his mind.
Spinel took him by his right hand, Pearl took him by his left hand, and though both guided him in the same direction, toward the same goal, they both froze when they realized the other was there.
They stopped, glared at each other intently, and then Spinel was the first to make a move to snatch him. She pulled Steven away from Pearl's arms and into her own, like he was baby, and Steven didn't have the energy to care. Pearl made no attempt to take him back, be did make it clear she was going to be leading the way. Spinel seemed satisfied with that.
Steven blinked, and when he opened his eyes, it was like he teleported. Spinel was gone, Pearl was gone. He was in bed, covered up, with an empty cup on the table beside him, and beside that a jug filled with more water; Steven assumed so he didn't have to walk down and get it himself if he was still thirsty, and he was. He began to pour himself another drink.
"Rough night?"
Steven flinched, but luckily didn't spill much. "Yeah." He responded, and then leaned back to look into the mirror, "Except it's day."
The mirror rippled and showed Steven shrugging.
"Yeah, you're not one for details."
Steven sighed and fell back on the bed, sprawling out as far as his small body could reach.
"It's not fair! I've been on like, a dozen missions, and they still treat me like a kid!"
"Not fair!"
"I know! And when I was in that 'burning room' I felt so scared; like, it wasn't my own fear type of scared, but the other scared."
"The other scared."
"Like, it was somebody else's fear I was feeling, you know?"
"Know."
"No like you don't know, or no like you know?"
"Like you know."
"Oh! So you do understand?"
"Yeah!"
"That's great! It's nice having someone to talk to."
"It's nice having someone to talk to."
"And someone to listen."
"And someone to listen."
Steven laughed softly. "You really like repeating stuff huh?"
"You really like repeating stuff huh?" The Mirror repeated, then replayed Steven's laugh track.
Steven laughed again. "You're a good friend." He picked up the mirror and put her on the table beside him, "I hope I can hear your real voice one day. If you have one."
"Have one."
Steven yawned.
"Goodnight, Mirror."
"It's day-Steven."
They had been plagued with misfortune all day, and Pearl didn't except any different, and she was met with just what she expected. What remained of the structure smashed into a pile of dust, and with Sugilite nowhere to be found.
"She can't have gotten far." Pearl said to Spinel, "I'd hate to say it, but I'm actually hoping she found something else to crush and hasn't just wondered off."
"Sounds like wishful thinking, but okay." Spinel shrugged, "Just don't get cracked again, and we might be able to talk some sense into her."
"You think I meant to be cracked? It was either that or poof and leave you alone to take on Sugilite! Besides, I knew Steven could heal me, so it was for the best anyway. Otherwise I would have been out of commission for a week at least."
"Not my fault you take a week to reform."
Pearl scoffed. "When I'm sorry if I want to get my form just right! It's only my body, not like it's anything important or anything."
"Oh, hush up!"
"Excuse me?!"
"No, I mean shush!"
"Why you-"
Spinel covered Pearl's mouth with her glove, and Pearl shouted her muffled anger. Then she stopped when she heard the distant sounds of crashing and laughter that echoed through the rocky valley.
Once Spinel saw that Pearl understood, she let her go and they both continued to listen.
"Sounds like she found something else to smash..." Spinel said.
"Yeah, well, let's just hope it's nothing human-made." Pearl added.
She summoned her spear, and Spinel summoned her mallet. Both exchanged grim looks, and they made sure to stay close to each other as they both perceived the threat.
Finding Sugilite was easy enough, and they soon discovered her attempting to tear apart a mountain at its foundation, growling and barking her frustration as she ripped rocks out of the earth and threw them behind her, into a forest plagued by her destruction. She seemed more animal than gem, an animal that needed to be controlled.
Spinel turned her hand into a telescope, and after a minute passed, she said, "Sugilite's got a gem corrupted trapped in a cave in the mountain. Looks like a pyrope."
Pearl huffed. "She's tearing apart the earth to get at a pyrope?! The only corruption that could justify this time of behavior would be a diamond itself! Anything else is just- ugh!"
"Well then let's stop her."
"Wait!" Pearl cried out to Spinel, but it was no use. She was already gone, and Pearl resigned herself to following suit.
"Sugilite!"
Sugilite only huffed and puffed, continuing her digging through the mountainside. She threw a large hunk of rock behind her, and Spinel watched as it flew through the air and landed in a nearby tree with a heavy boom that sent countless birds and other critters scattering for cover.
"AMETHYST!"
That caught Sugilite's attention. She stopped her digging, bared her pointed teeth, but didn't turn around.
"What do you want?"
"You need to unfuse. Now!"
Pearl finally caught up to Spinel and took her place at her allies side.
"Says who?!"
Sugilite turned around.
"Says me!" Pearl pointed her spear at Sugilite with no intention of firing.
"You. I thought I cracked you." Sugilite's angry expression turned into a grin, and she cracked her knuckles. "Guess I'll have to fix that."
"Sugilite, you don't know what you're DOING!"
Pearl's words ended in a terrified shriek as Sugilite took a single, heavy step toward her and shook the ground.
"Oh I know exactly what I'm doing." Sugilite kneeled down and grabbed a giant hunk of rock, "And know exactly what you'll be doing: running!"
Sugilite launched the rock at Pearl. Pearl prepared her spear, ready to protect herself, but again Spinel was faster. She shot her arms forward, her hands grew three times in size, and she grabbed the rock firmly. The fire of the projectile sent her flying a few feet back. She dug her heels into the dirt, digging up earth in her wake, and once she was sure she had stopped the momentum, she smashed the rock between her hands.
Sugilite seemed genuinely shocked. Angry at herself. "Garnet!" her voice teetered on the ends of Amethyst's, then shifted to a softer tone, "Sorry, wrong timeline." She growled, holding her head and shaking. "Hold it together."
"Their fusion's becoming synchronized." Spinel whispered to Pearl.
"Sugilite." Pearl stepped forward, "It's time to come home."
It seemed Sugilite was too lost in her inner battle to listen, even if she wanted to. She cradled her head in her hands, growling and barking and occasionally saying a semi-coherent word, all muffled. She stumbled back against the mountain and fell down against it with another, earthshaking wail.
"Sugilite." Pearl didn't stop her approach, "It's time to come home."
Sugilite stopped moving. She stopped making noises, and stopped shaking her head. She lowered her hands, glared up at Pearl with her single visible eye rolling in its socket, and grinned that evil grin.
"You want me to go home?"
Pearl gulped, and took a step back. "Yes."
Sugilite rose to her unsteady feet and gaze down at the smaller gems. "Fine then. I'll go home."
"Great!" Pearl clapped her hands together, but apprehension was still etched in her features and in her voice, "Now, just unfuse and…"
"Unfuse? Oh, no, no, no, no." Sugilite loomed dangerously close. "I'll go home but I won't unfuse."
"Sugilite…"
"Nuh uh, no way! We, I mean I, am not ready for this fun to end. But do you know what would be even funner? Having an audience!"
"Sugilite, you can't!" Pearl objected, "The humans would be terrified of you!"
"Even better! Then the'll truly appreciate what I can do! And Steven will be my right hand man!"
This time, it was Spinel's turn to interject. "You are not bringing Steven into this!"
"What are you gonna do about it, springtrap?"
Sugilite bent down and put her hand on her knees in a condescending motion, as if she was talking to a young child.
She got her answer when Spinel slapped her in the face, but before Spinel could pull her arm back, Sugilite grabbed her and was easily able to pull her off the ground and spin her around in the air like a lasso. Then she laughed, taking far too much pleasure in the act, and grabbed Spinel by her legs instead before beginning to treat her like the ball of a paddle-ball.
Spinel tolerated this treatment for a time, too shocked to process what had happened for at least a minute after, until she finally found her senses. While she was flying out, she stretched as far as her body could tolerate and wrapped her arms around a nearby tree. When Sugilite went to pull her back, Spinel stopped herself full-force, enough to pull her herself free of Sugilite's assault.
"Ugh." Her body laid tangled around itself as she struggled to pull herself back together.
"Spinel, you okay?" Pearl called.
Spinel gave a shaky thumbs up. "Never been better."
"That's it!" Pearl decided her spear was no longer just for show. If they wouldn't unfuse, she'd make them unfuse.
Sugilite laughed as the spear pieced her side. "That tickles."
Pearl shook away her shock, and summoned another barrage of arrows. "I hate to have to do this."
Sugilite's eye glimmered with anticipation, and she pounded her fists against her palms. "Give it your best shot, beauty queen."
Pearl threw her spears, but Sugilite was ready.
What spears she didn't catch bounced off her as if she were made of stone. "Pathetic. I was hoping for more of a fight." She turned her back on Pearl.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Spinel shouted from where she still laid on the ground.
Sugilite paused, and looked over her shoulder. "Home."
Steven woke up to the beam of the warp pad. He sat up quickly, his heart fluttering at the thought of seeing all four of the gems back where they belonged, only to dissapoint himself when he was met only with a defeated Pearl and a downtrodden Spinel.
"No luck?" He asked.
Pearl looked to Spinel, and Spinel shook her head. "No luck."
"Aw man." Steven shoved off his blanket.
In an instant, Spinel was at his side and feeling his forehead. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine." Steven said, "I'd feel better if Garnet and Amethyst were here, though."
Spinel put a hand on Steven's shoulder and gave him a sad look.
"No time to get emotional!" Pearl said, "Sugilite could show up at any time!"
Steven's heart skipped a beat. "Huh?"
Spinel blinked slowly. "She did say she was coming home..."
"And if she gets into town, those poor humans will be terrified of her!"
"Not to mention she'd smash everything. What do you think we should do?"
As they continued to talk, Steven felt smaller than ever. It was as if he wasn't there; they were talking to him, but not with him. He could hear them, but knew if he tried to make his voice heard, the exact opposite would happen. But he could at least try.
"Could I do anything?" He asked hopefully."
"I don't know," Pearl said, not once acknoledging Steven's prescence, "We could evacuate? We do have contact with Mayor Dewey."
"Well we don't want to cause a panic!"
"Guys?" Steven tried again.
"Well, we don't need to tell Mayor Dewey what's headed this way; just that they need to get out of her way."
"I guess."
Steven crawled off of the bed, taking his mirror with him.
"But what if they encounter Sugilite on their way? They'd be defenseless in their cars!" Spinel pointed out.
"Oh, true! I didn't think of that!"
"Bye!"
Their conversation didn't stop, and so Steven just left. When he found a place alone under the shade of a rock, he looked down at his reflection.
"What do you think?" He asked her.
The mirror became Spinel and blew a raspberry.
"Yeah. Me too."
"Who is- Sugilite?"
"She's a fusion of Amethyst and Garnet." Steven explained, then quickly added, "Do you know what a fusion is?"
"Yeah!"
"That's great! Cause I really don't know how to explain it."
The mirror laughed.
"What should I do?" Steven asked, "I want to be useful but they won't let me."
The mirror thought. "Not-fusion-Sugilite!"
"Eh?" Steven thought, "You mean unfuse?"
"Unfuse-Sugilite!" The mirror repeated.
Steven felt himself filling with warmth. "You think I can?"
"Yeah!"
Steven hummed. "I dunno. She was big."
The mirror said nothing for the longest time, and then she showed a clip of Garnet bending down to hug Steven. Then, a clip of Amethyst and Steven having a pie-eating contest (Amethyst won, of course). Then Garnet blowing a kiss to Steven, Amethyst and Steven playing video games, all three of them watching TV together.
"Okay, I get it!" Steven said, and the mirror stopped showing the memories. He picked her up. "But I've never fought anything by myself."
"I-can-help!"
Sugilite knew exactly where she was going. She could see herself finding Beach City any minute now, but anything after that faded into the oblivion beyond her reach. It didn't matter. She'd find out soon enough.
Where?
Left.
She went left.
Watch where you're stepping.
Sugilite growled, shaking her head to rid herself of the voices that bounced around inside. See that tree? Yeah. It's too big, I don't like it. I want to smash something! Let's smash that tree, smash that tree!
Sugilite did just that. She ripped up the tree by its roots and tossed it.
Look at it go! I'm looking, I'm looking! Let's do another! No. Yes! Fire! Ice. Wait.
Beach City.
Let's show them how to be strong in the real way.
Must be strong, can't be weak. Strongest, strongest. Best of the best. Better, bigger, badder. Must! Must not! Have to! Have to!
Sugilite made up her mind. She tilted her head back and roared into the air, breathing out a great stream of fire.
"I'm coming home, baby!"
"Steven?" Spinel noticed he was missing the moment she got a break from her conversation, "Where's Steven?"
"He probably just went to the Big Donut." Pearl said, "You know he likes it there."
Spinel ran over to look out the window, to try and get a glimpse toward the restaurant to see if Steven was truly on his way over there, but instead she saw a glimpse of something else: Fire.
"I think I found Sugilite."
I got this! No you don't! Let me do it! Move! Watch out! Stop moving. I can't see!
Stop.
Sugilite stopped. That wasn't one of her voices.
"Huh?"
"I... said stop!"
Sugilite looked around. Where? There.
She growled softly once she spotted Steven on the ground, hidden in her shadow and cowering behind that dumb mirror of his.
"Hahaha! Little man! Come to see me do my stuff?" Sugilite grinned.
Steven swallowed, and shook his head. "No I... I came to stop you..."
Sugilite blinked. "Me? Stop me?"
Steven nodded.
"You? I could crush you!"
Steven closed his eyes. "Then do it."
"Huh?" Sugilite stepped back. What is he doing? I don't know! Just listen...
Steven opened one eye, and then the other. "Please. I don't like seeing you like this."
Like what? What does he mean? I told you, just listen.
"I want Garnet and Amethyst back. I want you both back. I know you like being Sugilite, but I don't think you should be her anymore. Pearl said you 'synchronized'. So, can you... unsynchronise? Please?"
Look at him! Those eyes! I want, I need, I don't. Sugilite could feel herself being ripped apart. Want, need, don't. Need to be, want to be strong. Need it, want it, live it.
"It... hurts!"
"Please." Steven appealed to them again, and his voice rose above all else, "Please!"
Want, need, don't. Want to separate... need to separate... don't separate...
Parts tried to rip apart, and others pulled them back.
Stop! Stop! "Stop! Stop! Stop!"
She needed it to stop. It needed to stop. Any way possible. She grabbed a tree, uprooted it, and lunged it at Steven with a great wail of pain.
Spinel froze, and grabbed Pearl before she could run any further. "Is that Steven?"
Pearl laughed. "Don't be silly! Of course it's not Steven!"
Spinel grabbed Pearl's head and forced her to look toward the ground.
"What?! Steven!" Pearl went to run, but Spinel immediately stopped her.
"We can't go down there! Sugilite'll stomp us! Again!"
"Well, at least we can reform! Steven can't!"
"We can't protect Steven if we're poofed!"
Pearl thought, and then the solution came to her in an idea that made her sick to her gemstone ache.
"Spinel... you're right."
Spinel looked to Pearl as if she were crazy. "Huh?"
"We're no use to Steven if we're trapped in our gemstones." Pearl hung her head, and then held out her hand to the pink gem. "Steven doesn't need us. He needs Sodalite."
Spinel stepped back, her eyes fixed on Pearl's hand. The pink color of her skin heated up to a bright red, and steam shout out of her ears in her rage.
"No! Absolutely not!"
Pearl had expected that reaction, but it shocked her nonetheless.
"You think I'm some idiot? That I don't know what happens every time you fuse?!"
"I... what?"
"You fuse into Rainbow Quartz, and you force Rose to stay with you for weeks cause you can't bare the thought of letting her go!"
"I..."
"You fuse into Opal once to save Steven's life, and you've been obsessed with her ever since!"
"Goddesses only know what'll happen if we form Sodalite! I mean, I'd hope you'd have the sense to see it'll turn out like all the others! I mean, you've had the sense not to try it with Sardonyx. Yet."
"I would never do that to Garnet..."
"Why don't I believe you?
Pearl hung her head in shame. "I know I'm not exactly the best fusion partner, but that doesn't matter now! What matters is Steven, and I can't do it alone, neither can you."
Spinel's pigtails drooped.
"So we have to do this together..."
Steven screwed his eyes shut as the projectile flew toward him, but he didn't move. He held his mirror in front of him, hoping, praying, that she was right. That what she said would happen would happen. Please, please, please!
He wasn't flattened, and so he opened his eyes, and there was another shadow looming over him. Not Sugilite's bulky, brutish frame, but a slender shadow with hair that curled into a heart and two arms to compare to Sugilite's four.
"Holy giant woman..."
She stood just a little taller than Opal had been, towering high over the trees and coming up to Sugilite's shoulders. Delicate white skin blemished with pink, heart-shaped markings all throughout her body. A pointed nose, four eyes of pink and blue and, as the shadow had shown, two arms. Her hair was a pale pink, similar in style to Pearl's, only backward, and where the hair would come to point instead curled down to form a single heart on her forehead over her stained-pink pearl gemstone.
"Steven!" Her voice was light and bubbly, and one of her arms shot down with all of the dexterity of Spinel to seize him in her gloved hand and pull him close. "What are you doing down there?"
Steven was too taken aback to respond right away, and now that he was closer, he took the opportunity to get a better look at her. She had a black with a collar that dipped low enough to allow Spinel's gem to breath, and the sleeves of the outfit were as white as her skin and blended in almost perfectly. She had a bow wrapped around her waist that separated her top from her skirt; a beautiful, frilled white skirt with pink hearts and blue moons in an alternating pattern. Beneath that was a pair of white tights that lead into a pair of equally white ballet shoes, with a heart-shaped pom-pom on their front.
"You're beautiful." Steven said.
"And you're grounded." The fusion looked away from Steven and to Sugilite. "It's time to unfuse, Sugilite."
Sugilite growled. "Over my dead body."
The other fusion closed their eyes, and sighed. "Very well." She sat Steven on a nearby tree.
From her gems she pulled out Spinel's mallet and one of Pearl's spears, and brought them together. When the light cleared, only one weapon remained: Pearl's spear, but with a newfound, cartoonish appearance to it.
She got a grim look on her face. "I didn't want to have to do this..."
She aimed her spear, Sugilite got ready. When the spear went flying through the air right toward Sugilite's chest, she raised her hands to stop it, but the moment her claws met its surface, it exploded with a sharp pop like a balloon. Heart and moon shaped confetti blew out and all over Sugilite.
"What the?"
The fusion threw another spear, this one aimed toward Sugilite's forehead. Again, Sugilite got ready to protect herself from it, but then the spear paused suddenly a few feet in front of her. The tip spiraled open, and out came a cartoon flower.
"Huh?" Sugilite leaned closer to it, and then it sprayed a weak stream of water at her before exploding into pink glitter.
Sugilite bared her teeth at the fiasco, but then her hatred turned to laughter. "Ha! That was kinda funny, Sodalite!"
Sodalite grinned. "You ain't seen nothing yet! Haven't!" She growled at herself.
Sodalite. She reached into her sleeve, and pulled out a bushel of roses. She winked with two eyes, took a deep breath, and blew into the flowers. Their petals began to turn white, but half-way through seemed to reconsider. That didn't stop them from growing half-formed white wings and attempting to take off into the sky.
"Oh. Those were meant to be doves."
Sugilite laughed even harder. Sodalite flicked her wrists, and the half-rose half-doves exploded into feathers and petals.
"Okay, next trick!"
She closed her hands together, and when she pulled them apart, she held a deck of cards in her hand.
"Pick a card-" She lost her groove, and the cards went flying out of her hand. She grabbed the ones she could, but most drifted down to the ground and exploded into a cloud of dust, "Any of these... three cards!"
Sugilite laughed even harder. "She-she dropped the cards!" Sugilite smacked her knees.
"Okay, not one for card tricks!" In a flick, what remained of the cards were gone. Sodalite looked nervous, and a cartoon sweat dropped formed on her forehead. "What's this behind your ear~?"She reached behind Sugilite's ear and, after a few minutes, pulled back empty-handed. "There was supposed to be a coin back there..."
Sugilite tilted her head.
"Wait." Sodalite reached behind her own ear, and produced a large gold coin. "There is it!"
Sugilite gritted her teeth, but couldn't hold back her laughter. Her body began to glow, and then it began to shrink slowly until, where one giant gem once sat, two smaller ones took her place.
"Garnet! Amethyst!"
Garnet sat there unbothered with the smallest of smiles, but Amethyst did nothing to hide her laughter. She fell on her back, clutching her stomach as she laughed.
"The coin-was behind- her ear!"
Garnet gave a simple. "Ha."
Sodalite sighed. She turned back to the tree where she had left Steven watching in awe, and carefully lifted him onto her arms. She sat him on the ground beside Garnet and the laughing Amethyst, and then she glowed, shrank, and left in her place were Spinel and Pearl.
"Amy!" Spinel ran over to Amethyst, "Are you okay?"
Amethyst didn't acknoledge her. "The roses grew wings!"
"I'll take that as a yes."
Garnet rose to her feet, and Steven shrank in her shadow.
"Steven." She put her left hand on Steven's shoulder, "I am so sorry."
"It's okay." Steven sank into Garnet and wrapped his arms around her legs, "I'm just glad you're okay."
Amethyst finally got control of herself. "I'm sorry too. I... got a little carried away with Sugilite."
"I'm sorry that I gave the order." Garnet said, "I knew how unstable Sugilite was but I fused into her anyway."
"Yeah. Fusion." Amethyst fell onto her back. "I think I'm gonna steer clear of that for a while if you don't mind.
Garnet nodded slowly. "We both are to blame for Sugilite's madness." Then she turned to Steven, "Steven, what you did was very foolish. You challenged a violent and unstable fusion by yourself, and if Sodalite hadn't have showed up when she had, then Sugilite could have hurt you!"
Steven whimpered. "I just wanted to help, and my friend told me that Sugilite wouldn't hurt me, because you and Amethyst loved me and, when you fused, you became one unit. You both loved me, so that unit loved me. But then you threw a tree at me."
Pearl raised a brow. "Your friend?"
"Yeah! She's super cool! She gives me advice and talks to me in her own way and stuff."
Four sets of eyes were on him, three confused and one nervous.
"Steven." Garnet said slowly, "Tell us about this friend."
"Um." Steven felt scared, but when he clung to the mirror, all that emotion seemed to flow into her instead. "She's... she's nice. She kept me company while you guys were on that mission. She likes jokes..."
"Where... is this friend?" Spinel asked, "I'd like to meet her."
"Um. Here." Steven tapped the mirror, "In here."
"In the mirror?" Pearl gasped.
"Y...yeah. In the. Mirror." Steven looked between all the different faces, and felt all their different emotion flood all around him; fear, apprehension, confusion, hesitance, and a strange realization. A thought that wasn't quite his, that he couldn't quite decipher.
"Steven, I'd like to meet this friend." Garnet held out her hand, "Give me the mirror.
"NO!"
Steven flinched at his own voice and turned the mirror around in his hand. A cacophony of different voices, all saying the same thing, joined in.
"NO! NO! NO! NO!" Their images spiraled around in the cold pools.
"Steven." Garnet demanded, "The mirror. Now."
"Give it to her, Steven." Pearl added.
Spinel said nothing, and Amethyst looked torn between helping or hiding. The mirror continued to scream.
"She doesn't want to go with you!"
"It's a mirror, Steven!" Garnet growled, "It can't want anything."
"It's a tool, Steven!" Pearl objected.
The mirror paused its screaming enough to say, "That's- a lot- coming from a- Pearl!"
Pearl gasped. "How dare you!"
Mirror continued to scream.
"Steven, give it up. If you won't give it to me, I'll take it from you!"
Garnet reached for the mirror as the mirror screamed her dismay. No, no, no. His friend. He wouldn't let her take his friend!
Steven ran.