Act 3: The Final Ending
Chapter 56: The Time Has Come
Edit Finished On 12/11/19
Published On 12/27/19
Author Note: Chapter 56 is here! Episodes 9 and 10 of Steven Universe Future air tomorrow, so I'm excited for that! I don't have too much to say today, except enjoy!
Review Response
Wishmaker1028: Once again, thanks!
It was only quiet for just another few minutes. And then…
BOOM!
An explosion, destroying many Eliminators. The survivors hurriedly scattered about, trying to find the cause. But soon enough, there was another one. More Eliminators swooped in.
Explosion after explosion. Seconds felt like minutes. The numbers began to dwindle just as fast as new Eliminators flew down. After a minute, they finally stopped.
Two Eliminators that were out of range of the explosions were watching from above on a tower, sipping from fruity drinks, while also wearing Hawaiian shirts. Thanks to all the smoke from the explosions, it was near-impossible to see anything thanks to all the smoke surrounding the area.
"Wow. What the heck was that?" One of the Eliminators asked before sipping his drink.
"I dunno, but…" The other one squinted his eyes. "I think I see something really tiny in the distance."
The first Eliminator also squinted his eyes as the smoke slowly began to clear away. "Yeah, I… I think I see it too!"
On the ground, the other Eliminators slowly regained their bearings, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. It was hard to see anything, and the smoke was clearing up too slowly. They heard… stomping. They looked in the direction of it.
As the smoke finally began to clear up, it became clear who was coming toward them. The strangers stopped. In the front stood Terrance and Tamara. In the middle; Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. And in the back were the rest: Mark, Greg, Crocker, Shirley, Dark Laser, and Vicky. All of them held fairy weapons in their hands.
It was tense. Nobody moved a single muscle, except for the two Eliminators on the tower dropping their drinks. Nobody said anything. Nobody lifted his or her weapons. There wasn't even any passing breeze.
And eventually, Terrance spoke. "This was only a warning. And it's going to be the only warning you're getting."
"How dare you use this place as slavery for the innocent!" Tamara added.
"This place belongs to the fairies!" Pearl yelled. "You can't just use this place as some, some… some ground where you can just do whatever you want!"
"You need to release all of the Fairies and people from Flipside immediately!" Garnet demanded.
"Yeah, or else we'll make you." Amethyst warned.
The rest of the group cheered, echoing their similar sentiments. The Eliminators had taken control of Fairy World for far too long. It was time to take a stand, time to rebel against the unjust capture of the Fairies and the Flipside citizens. And there was no better time than now.
"So?" Terrance questioned. "What'll it be?"
Silence resumed, as if time itself stood still. No other exchanges, no other words, no other dialogue. The Eliminators stared at Terrance's group. Terrance's group stared back. If one were to move, the opposition would move even faster. This was, at its very core… a stalemate.
And yet, sooner than later, someone did move. The Eliminator closest to them raised its arm, and that was all it took. Terrance shot his fairy weapon at it, blowing the Eliminator and the surrounding area up. It all happened so fast. The Eliminators took off and rushed after them, and Terrance's group let out a battle cry before rushing forward themselves.
Then, it was chaos.
Everyone fighting the Eliminators, all scattered around, using their various weapons, it was impossible to keep track of everything, let alone where anyone was. It was pure chaos.
Only seconds had passed, but it felt like minutes. Everyone was caught up in his or her own fights. From a distance, it would just look like a mesh of various colors mixed with gray. The two Eliminators that were chilling out and sipping their drinks decided to abandon ship and fly somewhere safe.
As Terrance's group fought, that only meant more Eliminators were being dropped in. With each few that were destroyed, there would be at least one to take their place. But that did not and would not stop them, not in the slightest. Their ultimate goal of saving Fairy World would be reached, even if they had to fight a thousand Eliminators to get there.
Thankfully, their fairy weapons still had a good amount of use left, and they would use them all to their fullest extent. Even so, the fairy weapons only had a limited amount of power, so they had to use them very wisely.
Nobody was holding anything back, even the Eliminators. This resulted in many missed shots that would end up in undesired places, such as a building, causing severe damage to it, sometimes causing it to topple over.
The damage could be fixed later. What they needed to do right now was take down all the Eliminators, no matter what. It wasn't if they could them down, it was they had to.
In all the chaos and inadvertent destruction, they fought. Vicky used her weapon to shoot out several chainsaws at the Eliminators, cutting them into pieces. But a few other Eliminators saw the chainsaws that fell, and picked them up. They tried to chase Vicky with them, but she countered by shooting magic from her weapon at them. The Eliminators dodged, and tried to run after her with the chainsaws.
Vicky jumped out of the way onto a large piece of rubble. "So that's how you wanna play, huh?" She charged up her weapon before firing it at the Eliminators, destroying them and the chainsaws. She jumped off the rubble and began running, weapon in hand.
Nearby, Greg was trying to use his weapon to take out a few nearby Eliminators. He was having a bit of trouble using it, and accidently kept hitting buildings while trying to fire the weapon. He needed to narrowly avoid the Eliminators' attacks, and it proved to be very difficult very quickly. Thankfully, Vicky ran over to help, shooting her weapon at the Eliminators. Greg let out a big sigh of relief, but Vicky groaned as she realized something.
"Oh, great. My weapon's out of juice!" Vicky yelled, shaking the weapon. "Well, I could just use it as a blunt object if I have to."
"Hey, you can use mine if you need to." Greg said in between breaths.
"No, you need it a lot more than I do." Vicky responded. "I am a lot more experienced in combat than you are." The teen then ran off, presumably to fight more Eliminators. Greg heard a nearby explosion and ran too, but in a different direction.
Greg kept on running, but soon found someone else. Pearl was fighting off Eliminators with her spear. Her fairy weapon was just lying there on the ground.
"Pearl, why aren't you using your weapon?" Greg asked as he tried to help her out, but missed again.
"Because that weapon was too big and bulky for me to use." Pearl answered after she sliced an Eliminator in half. "And these aliens would be defeated much quicker with an easier, more simple weapon." As she finished saying that, an Eliminator grabbed her spear and pulled it toward him.
Pearl cried out in alarm, but Greg was able to aim his weapon at the Eliminator and fire, making a direct hit. The Eliminator was destroyed instantly.
"Thank you, Greg." Pearl said, getting her bearing. "You can use my weapon if you like, I have no reason to use it."
"Gee, thanks Pearl. I think my weapon was beginning to run out of juice, anyway." Greg said. He tossed aside his own weapon and picked up Pearl's. "I can't wait to tell Steven about this!" He yelled as he ran off.
After checking to make sure all the Eliminators were taken care of, Pearl ran somewhere else, checking for any Eliminators. Soon, she found several of them, fighting something. As she quickly got closer, she saw what exactly was going on.
Mark was using his weapon quite successfully against some Eliminators, but he was using up a lot of energy. Pearl ran in and helped him out, taking out several of the Eliminators. After a little bit more fighting, the Eliminators in the near vicinity were either defeated or they fled.
"Sup. And thanks." Mark said. "You know, since we are both aliens that decided to mainly live on the planet Earth, I think that both of us have a lot of things in common."
"There are a multitude of reasons why we are not similar, Mark." Pearl said. "From my time on… Homeworld, there was… a lot of research on your planet, and… oh, I don't have time for this." Pearl jumped away to try and fight other Eliminators, leaving Mark by himself.
Mark narrowed his eyes and quickly slithered to try and find more Eliminators, wanting to get in on the action again. Soon enough, he found Shirley fighting a few Eliminators. Mark let out a war cry as he charged toward the Eliminators, and helped out Shirley in defeating them.
"Hey, thanks a lot." Shirley said after the nearby Eliminators were defeated.
"No problem, bro. Also, it is to my understanding that you are also a friend of Timmy Turner?" Mark asked.
"Yeah, I totally am! Hey, do you know someone named Jimmy Neutron?"
"Jimmy Whotron?"
Shirley was about to explain, but saw several Eliminators running into a building. Unintentionally leaving Mark behind, he ran into the building after them. When he ran in, he saw that the Eliminators were chasing after someone, but he couldn't see whom. He continued running, chasing them up steps that looked like they were all about to collapse.
He ran up to the second floor, and then the third before he saw what was going on. There were Eliminators chasing Crocker in the building, but Crocker once in a while was able to get a shot in on them.
The building had many floors, which made it hard for Shirley to catch up. But eventually, they reached the roof. Crocker shot his weapon at the Eliminators, but they avoided it. Shirley finally made it up to the roof and punched one of the Eliminators away, diverting their attention toward him. This gave Crocker the chance to shoot a few of the other Eliminators, pushing them all off the building.
One of the fallen Eliminators got its bearings quicker than the others, and as it fell, shot at the building, trying to hit Crocker and Shirley. While it did miss, it hit another target: the actual building. The building began to collapse.
Shirley was able to jump off the building, but Crocker wasn't so lucky. As it all began to cave in, he closed his eyes and screamed as he began to fall… until he felt something wrap around his torso and pull him to safety. He opened his eyes.
"I gotcha, Crock." Amethyst was the one who saved him, using her whip to pull him onto another, shorter building.
"Don't ever call me that again." Crocker said. He blinked, feeling something was missing. "Great." He didn't have his weapon. "I must've dropped it in all the panic."
"Here, you can have mine." Amethyst said with a shrug, tossing him her weapon. Crocker clumsily caught it, nearly dropping it off the roof. "Come on, we should get down before anything bad happens."
Both in agreement, the two of them got down from the building safely before any Eliminators arrived, surprisingly. The moment they stepped out, it collapsed right behind them. Shortly, they found out why. Several Eliminators were above them, lasers poised to fire again.
And so they did. Crocker and Amethyst ran in different directions, trying to avoid the blasts. Crocker tried to blast the Eliminators with his weapon, but they kept swerving out of the way. Amethyst deflected the blasts with her whip, sending them right back at the Eliminators, causing them to explode. The pieces of the Eliminators rained to the ground. Crocker and Amethyst both took deep breaths.
Somewhere nearby, Dark Laser and Garnet were fighting Eliminators together. Garnet used her gauntlets to continually push back the Eliminators, at one point even punching straight through one. Dark Laser used his weapon to keep blasting the Eliminators away. The two of them made an incredibly formidable team, both of them being big and powerful.
But there was another team, and even though they weren't as powerful, as tough, or even as smart as them, they sure were determined.
Terrance and Tamara stood right outside of a burning building, running away from it. There was an explosion, knocking both of them forward to the ground. They looked behind them.
Earlier, they'd been in the building fighting off Eliminators. Why did they go into the building? For one, it was Terrance's idea, and… he couldn't really explain why. He just… had a feeling that he should go in there. But it turned out badly, as for some reason there were over a dozen Eliminators in there. Terrance and Tamara did try to fight the Eliminators, but it ended badly. They escaped, leading to what just happened.
The building exploded, sending debris flying into the air. Terrance and Tamara dropped the weapons as they lay on the ground, opting to cover their heads instead. Debris rained for nearly a minute, but nothing hit them. When it was safe, they stood back up, reclaiming their weapons.
"That was close." Tamara let out a sigh of relief. "Now come on honey, let's try and find somewhere safe."
Terrance didn't reply. He stared back at once was the huge building for several seconds, before finally saying something. "…We're going to lose."
"What? What do you mean we're gonna lose?" Tamara questioned.
"Well, no, I don't mean that, I just…" Terrance stumbled over his words, trying to find the right thing to say. "I mean, I don't know, when we went to this building, I just sort of had this feeling about something, I don't know what."
"You're avoiding the question!" Tamara said. "Why'd you say we were going to lose?"
"There's so many Eliminators…" Terrance answered. "When we defeat one, another one flies in to take its place. We don't have a lot of juice left on our weapons, either, so I thought…" He paused again.
"You thought what?" Tamara asked.
"I thought that…" Terrance didn't take his eyes off what once was the building. He could see Eliminators rising from the remains. "I told you a minute ago that when we got to the building, I felt something. And right now… I'm still feeling it. The feeling was stronger when we went inside. I think… I'm looking for something. But I don't know what I'm looking for."
"Wha-honey, that makes no sense!" Tamara yelled. "You're looking for something, but you don't know what it is… How… how is that even possible?"
"That's what I want to know!" Terrance finally turned to look at her. "And I can't stop until I find out what it is. The feeling won't go away until then, so I have to go back there." He pointed to all the rubble, the lingering fire, and the Eliminators that were still getting their bearings.
"I… well…" Tamara handed him her weapon. "Here. You'll need it."
Terrance took the weapon. "I promise I'll be right back, safe and sound." He gave his wife a quick kiss on the cheek before running off.
The Eliminators flew up before speeding toward him. Terrance didn't stop running. He charged up both of his weapons and shot them repeatedly at the Eliminators, taking them down one by one. More took their place, flying in from many different spots.
There were too many for Terrance to keep up with, but even so, he wouldn't stop. That feeling was getting ever so stronger… He shot at as many Eliminators as could, while avoiding lasers from the rest. A few even tried to swoop down to him, but he counteracted by bluntly hitting them with his weapons.
He could feel it. With each step he took, he grew closer. He wiped sweat off of his forehead and forced back a cough. He kept shooting, he kept dodging, he kept running.
Terrance made it to the remains of the building. It was here. He knew it. He didn't know what it was, but it definitely was here. …But where?
An Eliminator from behind. Terrance whipped around and shot it. Another from the side. He charged up both weapons and fired.
The Eliminators were closing in on him faster than before. He kept shooting, but a low fear began rising when there was no juice left in either weapon. The Eliminators flew toward him from all sides. He threw his weapons straight ahead, clearing a path. He ran, faster than he'd even run before. He was close… he just knew.
There soon was a pile of rubble in front of him. Dig. He took a rock and threw it behind him, hitting an Eliminator without even trying. He dug through the rocks as the Eliminators quickly caught up to him. And he found it.
Instead of another rock, he grabbed something long and thin, with what felt like strings on one side. This had to be it. He pulled it out. A white guitar, the White Wand. This was what he'd been looking for? But… how? And why? Even if it didn't make any sense right now, the Eliminators were only feet from him.
As if it were an instinct, Terrance swiftly turned around, brandishing the guitar. What should he do with it? Bash it against the Eliminators, or… No, he already knew what he had to do.
With one strum of the guitar, he sent a blue blast toward the Eliminators, destroying the ones who didn't get out of the way. The Eliminators were worried. Terrance was determined. He began playing the guitar as a blue glow surrounded him.
His playing was smooth, like he'd done it a thousand times before. In rhythm with his song, he blasted each and every nearby Eliminator. He felt the rhythm, he felt the power of the guitar oozing through him. All along, it felt like he was perfect for this.
His playing attracted other Eliminators, and thankfully so, since almost everyone else was getting weak from all the fighting. The everyone followed the Eliminators, and they all led to one central spot.
Terrance already was into his playing, creating a nearly perfect song. His eyes were closed as he rocked out, but they soon opened as he heard the Eliminators flying toward them. There were dozens of them.
Against all odds, his glow shined even brighter as he slowly began to float into the air. He didn't ask questions, he just knew that it felt right. He flew higher and higher, eventually reaching the Eliminators' height. He narrowed his eyes. "Get ready to rock and roll."
The others, meanwhile, all finally met up where Tamara was. She was gazing in awe at Terrance, and the others couldn't help but do so, too. It truly was amazing sight to see.
"Is he really flying?" Dark Laser questioned. "How does a guitar make him do that?"
"Nice." Garnet said with a smile.
Terrance shot beams of blue energy at the Eliminators, disintegrating one with each shot. This weapon would have no limitations, at least in his eyes… for now. Terrance's determination and willpower were all that kept him going, but it might not be enough.
As he kept firing beam after beam at the huge swarm, it would only make a tiny dent in it. The Eliminators got ever closer, so Terrance swerved upward in the air to avoid them, still shooting at them. Multiple of them flew up after him, wise to what he was doing.
He swerved and shot over and over again, but it was futile. So many Eliminators, and yet only one of him and the guitar. He was getting tired, and fast. His dodging of lasers were cutting closer, and his aim was off.
A direct hit. On him. As the laser hit Terrance, he let go of the guitar in his sudden pain, causing him to lose the blue glow and consequently fall to the ground.
Tamara let out a shrill scream before running to try and catch her husband. He was too far away. She ran faster, before diving forward with her arms outstretched. He landed in her arms, just inches off the ground. The White Wand landed behind them with a large clatter.
Terrance looked hurt from that blast, and all the others were too stunned to do anything. The Eliminators were flying down toward them. Tamara had to do something. She set Terrance down and then raced to the guitar, picking it up.
When she picked it up… it was hard to describe. It was almost… meant for her? Did that make sense? A pink glow surrounded her as she strummed it. A pink beam flew upward from the guitar. The Eliminators were forced to move back.
She continued to shoot the Eliminators, and as she did so, she heard something on the ground shift and move toward her. She looked to the source. It was Terrance, walking toward her.
"Don't worry, I've got this. You're hurt." Tamara said, briefly looking at him.
"You don't have to do this alone." Terrance said. Tamara paused to stare at him. "We can do this. Together." He held out a hand at her. She accepted, pulling him closer. He grabbed the White Wand with his free hand, and the pink glow was joined by a blue one.
The two glows on the guitar intersected with each other, mixing together into an almost light purple color. The married couple were surrounded with the same glow as they flew up faster than the Eliminators could fly.
"Hah! You call that flying?" Tamara taunted the Eliminators.
"You'll have to do a lot better than that to catch us!" Tamara added. With that, both of them zipped off, the Eliminators speeding after them seconds later.
…Wait for the perfect moment. Fly, fly, keep them all clustered together, and… Terrance and Tamara turned around. Now. A purple ball of energy formed at the White Wand's tip. It grew bigger by the second as the Eliminators quickly closed in, and…
The purple energy suddenly shot forward, knocking Terrance and Tamara back a bit. Anyone or anything that was unlucky enough to be in the path of the beam was… well… The beam lasted for several seconds before dissipating entirely, everything that was in it gone.
Terrance and Tamara slowly fell down to the ground, the glow around them beginning to dissipate. The others ran to them. Terrance needed to sit down when he got to the ground, while Tamara remained standing. Only silence.
"That was incredible!" Mark cheered, breaking the silence. "The way Mr. and Mrs. Turner flew around the air like that and than BAM! Giant beam, all of the Eliminators destroyed!"
"Hold on." Garnet said. "That might not be all of them." The group looked around, each of them in a fighting stance, ready to take on any more Eliminators that could arrive any second. But a minute passed, and…
"Uh, I don't think any more are coming." Vicky said.
"Are you sure?" Pearl asked. "There could just be more lying in wait, waiting for us to let our guard down."
"Even if they were doing that, they probably got crushed by the all the rubble." Crocker pointed out. As if to demonstrate his point, a building that was already on its last legs began to crumble.
"Geez, this place is really banged up, isn't it?" Amethyst asked, cringing a little.
"It can be repaired later." Dark Laser said. "Right now, we have to focus on finding everyone that was enslaved."
"Well, we may as well get started." Greg said, rubbing the back of his neck. The others were in agreement, the earlier they got started on rescuing everyone, the better.
Tamara helped Terrance up as she discarded the White Wand, not really needing a use for it anymore. Nearly everyone dispersed to go check a different area, but Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl stayed back for a minute.
Pearl sighed a little. "Geez, this destruction is even worse than the first time the Eliminators attacked this place…"
"Speaking of that, when this is all over, I want you to give me the juicy details of what went down in that first battle." Amethyst said. "Like how many did you kill, and-"
"Amethyst, do you really think that's what I want to do?" Pearl questioned. "I want to just be able to relax, and besides, fighting in two wars back to back, even if one was so much shorter than the other, is not fun!"
"Okay, I was just asking." Amethyst huffed. "Let's just save those Fairies and those people from Flipside."
"I couldn't agree more." Pearl said. She and Amethyst were about to walk off, but Garnet stopped them by grabbing onto their arms.
"Hold it, you two." Garnet said. "Let's wait about… ten more seconds."
"What? Why?" Pearl asked.
"You'll see in about six seconds." Garnet smiled.
Six seconds later, there was a shadow above the three. They looked up. In the sky, there was a small spaceship heading down onto Fairy World… actually, the closer it got, the less it looked like a spaceship and the more it looked like some sort of black escape probe.
The escape probe carefully landed in front of the three Gems. The hatch opened, and Peridot suddenly ran out screaming, brandishing her light stick. "Alright, you Eliminators clods!" Peridot screamed. "Prepare to face the wrath of Peri-" She stopped upon seeing Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl standing there, giving her a confused look.
"What are you three doing, just standing there?" Peridot asked, running up to them. "Why aren't you fighting the Eliminators, why aren't you-"
"Yo, chill Peri." Amethyst said casually. "We've already gotten it taken care of."
"What." Peridot was dumbstruck.
Just then, Steven stepped out of the escape probe. Looking around, he easily noticed how… destroyed Fairy World was now. "…Geez. Fairy World looks awful right now."
"Sorry Steven, but we couldn't help it." Pearl apologized. "And, well… it's not like it can't eventually get fixed!"
Two more people walked out from the escape probe. Timmy, followed by Turbo.
"Man, this place looks like a dump now!" Turbo commented. He turned to the three Gems. "Hey, you know, I don't think we've properly met, have we?"
"No, we haven't." Garnet answered. "But it is very nice to meet you, Turbo Thunder." She and Turbo shook hands for several seconds.
Once that was finished, Turbo leaned down to whisper something in Timmy's ear. "How does she know my name?"
"Steven told me she has future vision." Timmy whispered.
Upon seeing Timmy and Turbo, Amethyst couldn't help but snicker. "Why do you two have matching clothes on?" After asking, she starting laughing uncontrollably, to the point where she fell on the ground.
"I'll have you know that I am wearing this because this represents that I was the original Chosen One to stop the Darkness!" Turbo yelled.
Junior stepped out of the escape probe. "Dang, all that training sure made me hungry. Can we get some food soon?"
"I asked you and everyone else right before we left if you needed food!" Turbo yelled. "And you said no!"
"Well I wasn't hungry earlier!" Junior responded.
"You could've gotten some to save for later, then." Luigi pointed out, stepping out of the escape probe. "Like I did." He held a bag with food and a drink that he'd yet to get started on.
Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof then floated out, Wanda looking a bit miffed at Cosmo for some reason, while Cosmo looked drowsy.
"Cosmo, I told you to wake up when we landed!" Wanda scolded.
"Well, you didn't say where." Cosmo pointed out, leading Wanda to just groan.
"Anyway, so that's everyone?" Pearl asked.
"Hm…" Peridot looked at the escape probe suspiciously for several seconds before shaking her head and walking back into it. After a few seconds, the others could hear her talking to someone else, but the words were too muffled to make out clearly.
Nearly a minute later, Mike, carrying as many wands as he could, was basically pushed out of the escape probe by an annoyed Peridot. "Was that really necessary?" Mike questioned.
"Yes. Yes it was." Peridot answered.
"Because why?"
"Because."
Mike glared at Peridot before sighing and setting down the giant load of wands. "I… am never doing that again."
"Hey… and who are you?" Amethyst asked, a nervous grin in Mike's direction as she hastily looked at Garnet and Pearl.
"Mike." The man in question answered. An awkward pause.
"She meant, she wants to know why you are here." Garnet said, her expression unreadable.
Mike sighed in exasperation. "Well, it was either be stuck with these guys," He gestured to Timmy's group. "Or be stuck there." He looked behind him, found the metal Earth in view, and pointed at it.
Amethyst's eyes widened. "Holy sh-"
"What on Earth happened… to the Earth?" Pearl questioned, nearly screaming. She ran past the others in order to get a better view.
"The Eliminator with that black coat sucked up a bunch of weapons making him really big and powerful, and then he called himself "The Destructionator." Timmy began to explain. "Then, he used some sort of magic to turn the Earth metal."
Pearl remained frozen in place for several seconds. "We… we have to undo this. Now. Who knows what that… the Destructionator could be planning, what if he tries to blow up the Earth, o-or try and extend his power to other planets, or-"
"Pearl!" Garnet turned Pearl around so she'd be looking her in the eye. "Calm down. Please. The Earth will be safe. That's why they brought the wands."
"Right!" Wanda said, picking up one of the wands. "If the Destructionator can use magic to spread metal across the Earth, then we can use that magic to get rid of the metal!"
"We originally arrived here so we could help you free Fairy World, which is why we brought the wands." Turbo explained. "But… it looks like you've already taken care of that."
"No biggie, we can just give these wands to the fairies we find." Amethyst said.
"We're gonna have to distract the Destructionator somehow." Luigi said. "We'll need a few of us to get him away so the rest of us can restore the Earth."
"And then we're gonna look for the Ice Wand, which is the third wand in a sort of triad, I think." Wanda added.
"And then we'll use it to destroy the Destructionator!" Junior cheered. "And we'll use all three wands to destroy the Darkness, too!"
"And finally, we will then use the hopefully finished drill to drill down into the Earth and stop the Cluster from forming!" Peridot finished. "You know, that's a pretty good plan if I do say so myself."
"That plan sounds great!" Turbo said. "It's quick, efficient, and we'll get everything finished and done with faster than we know it!"
"Then I suppose that's be what we're going to do." Pearl said. "So, to distract the Destructionator, we're probably going to have to-"
"Wait!" Steven's yelled stopped Pearl in her tracks. He'd been holding this in for several minutes, wondering if it was even worth worrying about, but after some thinking and deliberation… he couldn't keep it in anymore.
"Steven, is there something wrong?" Pearl asked.
"Yes, there is! Remember back when I had that dream about Malachite…?" Steven asked. "Well, I… had another one."
The Gems' faces turned sour upon hearing the name Malachite, remembering what happened right before Malachite came into existence. She was an awful, horrid fusion that by all means shouldn't be able to hold itself together for that long… but somehow did.
"Steven." Garnet said firmly. "Do you have any idea where she is?"
"I, well…" Steven searched through his vague memory of his dream, trying to see if it would give him any new answers.
He felt… cold. Very cold. The swimming abruptly stopped when he hit some kind of a wall above him. He growled in frustration before punching the wall, hearing a shattering sound. He tried to swim up again, presuming the wall was broken, but he hit his head on another wall.
…It was all clear to him now. A place that was cold, and somehow had two walls when the Destructionator only put one wall around the Earth…
"The North Pole." Steven answered. "That has to be where she is."
"Geez, why'd she wanna hang out in a place like that?" Amethyst asked to no one in particular. "I mean, it's all icy and wet and…" She shuddered a little just thinking about it.
"Look, I may not understand how big of a deal this is, but…" Turbo began. "Is there something bad that could happen with Malachite?"
"Malachite is a very unstable fusion." Pearl explained. "It sounded like Lapis Lazuli was losing control. Soon, Jasper will overpower her and then Malachite will be loose like a wild animal. As soon as we restore the Earth, Malachite could break through the North Pole and cause all kinds of destruction! We have to stop her."
"Uh, but what about all the other stuff?" Cosmo asked. "Like the Cluster, the Darkness, the Destructionator…"
"Us three can handle that." Garnet answered, referring to herself, Pearl, and Amethyst.
"So, it sounds like all we need to add to our plan is that after we get rid of the metal," Luigi began. "Those three will take care of Malachite," He referred to the three Gems. "While the rest of us take on the Destructionator."
"Yeah… yeah, we can do that!" Steven said, becoming more confident. "So… that's what we're going to do?"
Garnet nodded while adjusting her visor, but then, so sudden but so slight you'd have to be paying attention to notice, she froze. The freeze was momentary, her smile turning into a frown. "No!"
"Wh-what?" Steven asked, just confused as the others. "Garnet, what do you-"
Garnet quickly knelt to his level and put her hands on his shoulders. "Steven, listen to me. As soon as we get rid of that metal, you have to use that drill and destroy the Cluster! You cannot waste any time!"
"Oh no, is it about to form?" Peridot asked.
Garnet tried to answer, having several false starts. "Just trust me! You and Peridot can take care of the Cluster. We'll take care of Malachite." She took a deep breath before standing back up.
Timmy looked around a little. "So if Steven and Peridot are gonna be drilling to the Cluster, and Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl are gonna be taking care of Malachite, that leaves… me, Junior, Luigi, Cosmo, Wanda, Poof, and Turbo to take care of the Destructionator."
"I'm sorry to say this, but I'm going to be aiding the search for the final wand." Turbo said. "I'm not sure how many fairies we'll have on such short notice, so we're gonna need as many heads as possible looking for that wand."
"Cosmo, Poof, and I are gonna be helping, too." Wanda added. "Sorry, sport."
"No, don't apologize." Timmy said before he took a deep breath. "We can do this, right guys?"
"Right!" Junior cheered.
"Mhm." Luigi said, finally getting started on his food. He decided set it aside. "If there's nothing else we have to do, then I'm ready."
Mike coughed, unintentionally bringing the attention to him. "Uh, well… since I don't have to do anything, I guess I can just sit here and relax." He sat down against the escape probe and kicked up his feet, ready to get a bit more rest.
"I don't think so." Peridot said, grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling him up to his feet the best she could, since she was shorter than him. "You're going to be helping me and Steven with the drill."
"And what makes you think I'll go with you?" Mike questioned.
"We've let you go with us, and you've done practically nothing!" Peridot yelled. "Sure, I've let you skip out on the training, but I've had it up to here with you! So you're-"
"Ok, fine, geez, I'll go with you!" Mike raised his hands in defeat. "…I just don't want there to be any unnecessary arguing."
Peridot crossed her arms. "Alright." She clapped her hands and turned to the three Gems. "So, we're gonna get going soon, right?"
"Right." Garnet answered. "Just as soon as we find some fairies to give these wands to." She gestured to the wands.
And with that, everything seemed to be on a course to all being over soon…
Nearby, an Eliminator wearing a Hawaiian shirt trapped in some rubble saw the whole exchange. He opened up a communicator on his arm, connected directly to Darkness.
"This is Eliminator 1. The Chosen One and Rose Quartz have been spotted. They are on their way to Earth."
Earth. More and more weapons continued to fill it every second, filtering through various tunnels previously dug in. At this point, the amount of explosives was beyond staggering, the sheer number making it harder and harder to fit more in.
Jorgen was locked and bound to a chair on top of a building, courtesy of the Destructionator, whom was currently watching over him, not taking his eyes off for a second.
"You know," Jorgen began. "There's not really any point to keeping me locked up in this chair, heh. I don't have any magic or anything that I could use to stop you, so either way, I'm powerle-"
"I'm not hearing any more of your lame excuses to try and escape." The Destructionator groaned. "And just for that, I'm going to give you some big ears."
With a POOF!, Jorgen's ears comically grew in size. "Thanks, I really needed that." Jorgen's voice was laced with sarcasm.
The Destructionator decided to ignore him, before using his magic to make the chair move to be in full view of the continuous stream of weapon transport.
"You're gonna get a front row seat to my glorious display." The Destructionator boasted. "First, the Chosen One and his stupid little friend Steven Universe will arrive. And then, Darkness will, and I'll convince her to suck up the entire Earth and take it into her heart. And then I activate the explosives and KABOOM! No more Darkness, no more Chosen One, no more Steven Universe, and no more you."
While driving into one of the huge constructed holes… a truck stopped. There was a backup. No more weapons could fit. Even if the Earth literally wasn't filled with weapons, it had enough to do giant damage that could be catastrophic.
"The Earth is ready for detonation, oh great beast of metal stuff." A metal person watching over the flow of traffic said, pulling something out of his pocket. He handed it to the Destructionator, who would look at it in disgust if he could express his emotions better.
"What is this? The detonator?" The Destructionator asked. It was a tiny remote with a singular blue button on it. "It's too small."
"It's actually standard size." Another metal person explained. "It's just that you are so super and big."
"How am I supposed to find this when I need it?" The Destructionator fiddled with the remote, until it slipped out of his hands and fell onto the rooftop. He groaned. "I wish the remote was magnetic." A pink aura surrounded the remote as it floated itself to his chest, attaching itself there. "That works."
"But your plan won't!" Jorgen yelled. "I have told you time and time again, your actions could cause the Cluster to wake up early and-"
"And I've told you time and time again that I don't care what happens to me afterward!" The Destructionator yelled. "So what if some giant monster tears me apart, or I get sucked into a black hole, or whatever? The only thing that matters is my revenge against Darkness, The Chosen One, and Steven Universe!"
"You realize you can't have your revenge against any of them if they are not here, right?" Jorgen questioned.
Three shadows, quickly flying down. Jorgen and the Destructionator looked up.
Timmy, with Junior on his back. Luigi with a Raccoon Leaf power-up that he wished up earlier. All three of them swooped down, landing on the very building Jorgen was on.
"So there's where Jorgen's been at." Timmy commented, having been wondering what happened to Jorgen after the 'rocket glute' wish.
"Have no fear, uh… we're here!" Junior cheered. He got a look at the Destructionator and gulped.
"Don't worry. We can beat him, even if we have far fewer than we should've." Luigi said. That was right. The other two triplets were waiting for the metal to be removed, so their numbers were scattered.
"So, Chosen One, you've finally come back crawling to your home planet." The Destructionator taunted. "What do you think of the new look I've given it?"
"Oh sure, the Chosen One's here." Jorgen said before any of the other three could respond. "But you still don't have Steven Universe or the Darkness!"
A low, almost feminine screech. It was just like that. One second, Darkness was nowhere in sight. And the next, she was there, taking up nearly the entire sky, blotting out the sun. Everything dimmed. For now, she said nothing.
"Don't jinx it any further, please." Junior begged, covering his ears as he heard the Darkness's low roar.
"Okay, you have Timmy Turner, and you have the Darkness, but you still do not have Steven Universe!" Jorgen yelled triumphantly.
"I can wait. I'm sure he's gonna come in on his shield or something, telling us to 'stop' or 'it shouldn't be like this' or some childish crap like that." The Destructionator ranted.
"Well, you can forget it!" Timmy said. "Because the only place where Steven's going is to stop the Cluster, which is nowhere near here!"
"So Steven Universe is on Earth?" The Destructionator asked, already knowing the answer. "Perfect."
"Why… do you call her that?"
For the first time in a long time, Darkness spoke.
The Destructionator turned his attention to her. "Why do you insist on calling him Rose Quartz? You know as well as I do that they obviously are not one and the same?"
"But isn't this just a repeat of what she told us before?" Darkness questioned. "She doesn't want to be called Rose Quartz, but Steven Universe? And she changed her form? Just like the first time, she decided she wanted to become Rose Quartz when-"
"This is all just nonsense." Luigi interrupted. "Remember. Even if these two are in the middle of some argument or whatever, we still have to destroy them.
"Timmy? You're down there, aren't you?" Darkness asked.
Timmy closed his eyes, trying to ignore Darkness. Her words flashed so many memories that he'd been trying hard to bury. He didn't move, didn't say anything back.
"…I'm so sorry that you're being threatened like this." Darkness said. "I'm sorry that this rogue Eliminator is trying to kill you and my precious Rose Quartz, he will be destroyed, I just know it!"
The others weren't affected by her words; they weren't the ones that had to suffer while trapped inside her. Her words seemed to get to him more than before, was it because it'd been a while since they'd been apart? At least Steven wasn't here…
"Everyone, stop! It's all a trap!" Jorgen yelled, getting even Darkness's attention. "Listen to me! The Destructionator has filled the Earth with explosives and is going to use the planet to destroy the Darkness and all of us!"
"Oh yeah?" Junior questioned. "As long as the three of us are together, no trap can-" Three chairs similar to Jorgen's magically appeared, locking up the trio that only just arrived there.
"You have got to be kidding me." Jorgen groaned.
"Now then…" The Destructionator stood up, before flying closer to Darkness, but not too close. "Darkness… I want to say that I am sorry for my past defiance. I want to atone for my behavior, so that is why I have brought to you Timmy Turner. You also know where Steven Universe is, too. And you want to take them back into your heart, right?"
Jorgen looked at the other three trapped in the chairs. They were just sitting, waiting… "None of you are doing anything! Why aren't any of you trying to break out, or do something, or…"
"Ten more seconds." Luigi said.
"What?" Jorgen questioned, and then paused. Thanks to his larger ears, he could hear it, but just barely. The raising of wands, and a lot of them.
A pink, magical beam separated some of the clouds. The beam hit the metal, and that metal peeled back before disappearing, restoring that bit of the Earth to its former green glory.
They all looked up. There were fairies, hundreds of them, circling the sky. From a distance, they couldn't see that well, but it looked like Turbo Thunder was leading the group.
The beams of magic continued to hit various parts of Earth, slowly but surely restoring it back to normal. After a minute, they'd finished. It was like the metal was never even there at all. As a gesture of kindness, the chairs that bound the four were even zapped away.
"What?" The Destructionator questioned. He landed on the building. "You think you punks can just get rid of all my hard work that easily? Well, you may have gotten rid of it…" He took a step closer to the four, and they took a step back. "But you have not gotten rid of me. And don't forget, I have magic."
"Yeah, I know." Timmy said with a smirk, his confidence slowly returning. "I'm surprised that with all this time, and all these chances you've had, you still haven't eliminated me yet. That means you stink!" He began laughing.
"You are so going down." The Destructionator aimed one of his arm cannons at them.
"I think a more appropriate term would be 'going up.'" Luigi challenged. Before the Destructionator could react, he flew up into the air thanks to his Raccoon Leaf power-up, and as soon as Junior got on Timmy's back, both of them headed up, right in Luigi's direction.
"You're not gonna be getting away from me!" The Destructionator yelled, angrier than ever. In rage, he took off after them, flying right past the fairies, getting himself far, far away from the Earth.
"Hey, look!" Cosmo said amongst the fairies. "The Destructionator is off the Earth!"
"Yes!" Turbo cheered. "Fairies, you know what to do! Search the Earth! Oh, and don't forget not to go to the North Pole, because that's where the Gems are fighting Malachite!"
With a cheer, the fairies began flying down to Earth, all of them hopeful that soon, they'd have the final wand within reach…
Earth was peaceful, as it should be.
And then there was the found of a warp being activated, followed by Steven running out, Peridot behind him, practically pulling Mike along.
"Ow, do you have to keep pulling me?" Mike questioned, trying to resist and pull away.
"Because even though this warp pad was the closest to the barn, its location is too far away!" Peridot yelled, still running. "Now do you want to die a horrible death or not?"
"No, I don't!"
"Then don't stop running!"
"Guys, stop!" Steven said, already feeling like he was out of breath. "We can't waste a second, we have to get to that drill as soon as we can!" This only prompted him and the other two to run faster.
No one knew when the Cluster would form, but when it did, there would be almost no warning.
A rumbling throughout the Earth.
Then, a turquoise fist broke through the ice at the North Pole.