Here we are with another chapter, it would've been out sooner, but I was making a new story called Steven's Parasite, it's a Steven Universe meets Symbiotes from the Marvel universe, so that should be fun.
Anyways, enjoy
-=Steven/All Of Steven's Court=-
-=The Announcement Building=-
"Alright then, I've given everyone an adequate amount of time to get here, so I'll commence with the announcements." Steven spoke, standing on a stage that held four thrones, his entire court present before him, and his personal Gems standing behind him side by side, the four of them acting as proper as possible, Spinel just doing as the others were.
"Now, I currently have two planets I need to work on colonizing, so I'm in need of scouts, builders, soldiers, and technicians." He announced, looking over the large crowd. "I'll decide how many of each I'll need when I figure out how many of you there are, so I'll allow Nephrite here to sort you into groups, as she has experience with being a commander of sorts."
"Wait, me?" The uncorrupted Gem in question asked quietly as the hybrid looked back to her. "Yes, you. You're an elite Gem of this court who is in charge of all those below you, just like the other three, and since you lead a team of Gems into war, I assume you would be the most capable of you four when it comes to commanding Gems."
"Right, my Diamond, I'm on it, thank you." She agreed with a nod as she stepped forward. "Listen up! I want single file lines from each respective group! Scouts, you form a line at the far left of the room! Soldiers you line up next to them, no less or more than ten feet between your two groups!"
Steven stepped back and watched her start lining Gems up across the room, the green Gem speaking with authority in her voice. "Steven, you said she gets to command these Gems because she was a leader before, so what are our roles? Me and 'Curls' have only ever terraformed, and Spinel was apparently an entertainer, so where do we fit in?" Freckles spoke quietly, her respectful stance not wavering for a second.
"Simple, you two will mostly be interacting with the colonization stuff: commanding terraforming, watching over the preparation of kindergartens, and all that, but you can do the terraforming yourself if you wish." He responded with a dismissive wave. "And Spinel just has a general authority over everything just like you three, she doesn't exactly have a category to fit in, so really all I ask of her is that she-...fight those who I want her to, hence why I 'gifted' her that scythe."
"What was that pause for?" Curls asked with a slight chuckle, knowing that he likely just stopped himself from saying what he truly kept Spinel around for. What Steven was originally going to say though, was that all he wanted was for her to just stay by his side, but of course, he wouldn't say something like that out loud, so he had to make an excuse. "As I said, she doesn't really have a specific place to fit in, it just took me a second to remind myself of her job."
Spinel would usually have been disappointed that her Diamond didn't have a proper place for her, but she held on to the idea that there was something more to their relationship, that she was special in his eyes for more reasons than being a Gem his mother hurt...she had heavy feelings for the teen, and she would do anything to see to it that those feelings were reciprocated. "Of course, whatever you wish, Steven." She spoke with a smile.
"And the kindergarteners go to the far right of the room, and as per the last lines, ten feet between your line and the other group's line, no more, no less!" Nephrite ordered, having just sorted the room out by occupation. "There you go, my Diamond, everyone is in their place,"
"Good, thank you Nephrite." He spoke, putting a hand on her shoulder as he came up next to her. "I'm sure you all have noticed these four Gems that are accompanying me up here by now; these Gems are the top of my court, so I don't care what your ranking is in normal homeworld society, if any one of these four ask anything of you, you are to do it as if it were a direct order from me, understood?"
"Yes, my Diamond!" They all responded in unison, a few Gems somewhat unhappy about having to be below a Nephrite and whatever Spinel was supposed to be, as they didn't really know her due to the Gem being the only one of her type.
"Good, now, you are all to pull out your communicators and add this device to the contacts." Steven ordered, tossing the first Gem in the line to his left his communication device. "Pass it along and return it to me when you are done."
"Oh, and I'll require the Gem who is highest ranking among the scouts, the soldiers, the builders, and the technicians, so right after each of you have put your information into the device, you are to join me up here." The hybrid informed them before he turned around and made his way over to the pink throne, sitting down on the smallest throne. "You four may relax."
Upon his statement, Spinel was quick to hop up on his lap and wrap her arms around him, obviously feeling rather affectionate today. Of course, like always, Curls and Freckles sat down on the arm rests of the large throne, leaving Nephrite, who just gave a shrug and sat down on the floor next to his right leg. Needless to say, quite a few members of his court were baffled to see these Gems getting so close, sitting on his throne, and even the Diamond himself, but of course they wouldn't voice these concerns, as they saw that he had no problem with it.
It didn't take long to have his communicator passed to the elite members of each occupation, the four Gems he had requested now standing before him. "Good, I assume you four are the respective leaders of the scouts, soldiers, building team, and technicians?"
"Yes, my Diamond." The four of them spoke, their arms forming a Diamond salute. Steven just gave a nod, noticing that Spinel had fallen asleep on him. "Hm, right then; you four will be given coordinates soon, I want the scouts to find a safe area to set up base on the planet that I'm sending them to, before you begin learning about said planet, and I want one hundred soldiers sent, half of the soldiers with the scouts and half with the base, but send fifty following close behind my ship when I leave, which will be right after this meeting." He began to set up his plan.
"As for the builders, you will be sent down with a prebuilt base that you are to expand on. Now I will need the technicians in a faster ship than my own to leave immediately, you are to go to earth and set off an EMP, use this time to plant remote activated bombs on all of their satellites, there are over a thousand allegedly, so you'll need many Gems working at once. Also, broadcast this towards a town called Beach City, it shouldn't be too hard to find." He instructed, handing the technician a device with a recording. "So, did you four get all of that?"
"Yes, my Diamond." They agreed again, leaving after he told them they were dismissed, the technicians leaving the building right away as he requested. Steven stood up, making sure to set Spinel back down on the throne, though not really caring if she woke up, which she did as he approached the front of the stage. "As for the rest of you, you now have the ability to contact me if need be, though if you contact me meaninglessly, there will be consequences. You are all dismissed, but the kindergarteners best be expecting a message soon."
He watched as the room emptied out, everyone forming a neat line out the door as Steven's four Gems approached him. "So, what do we do now? You got scouting started on your new planet, you have a planned invasion set up for earth, and you're more than powerful enough to take out the rebellion."
"Now? We will start heading to earth, it's a long trip after all." He decided as he lead them to a back room with a warp pad. "The technicians will get there a couple days before us, so things should be ready by the time we get there, we will have soldiers following closely behind, and I will be contacting White to send her forces to earth so that I may start my invasion."
"Yay, another trip." Spinel said happily as they warped to where he kept his ship. "We're getting the plants and stuff this time for sure, right?" She questioned as she turned around to face him, the pink Gem walking backwards, her every movement just as animated as ever.
"Yes, this will be the last time we see the earth the way it is now, so of course we'll be collecting what we have planned to collect, in fact, we'll be doing that first this time, because I just know the rebels will give us issues." He reassured her as she bumped into his ship, the hybrid giving a slight roll of his eyes as he brought everyone inside of it. "Next stop, earth."
-=Earth=-
-=Three Days Later=-
-=The Beach House=-
-=The Main Crystal Gems=-
"Alright everyone, I've brought you all here for a very important announcement." Garnet spoke, having recently come to a conclusion with the other two core Crystal Gems. "Me, Amethyst, and Pearl have been talking for a while now and we've decided...we have to fight back against Steven."
"Excuse me?!" Lapis was the first to speak up, Peridot following soon after. "Yeah, I'm with Lapis on this, we can't fight Steven, we're supposed to be helping him!"
"Yeah, I agree with them too, Steven is important to us, but at the same time, you three raised him, so I'm sure there is some reasoning to this decision, right?" Bismuth questioned, really hoping that they weren't suggesting that they legitimately fight him.
"Exactly, we aren't planning on just flat out hurting him or trying to kill him, we just need to...erm, knock him unconscious." Pearl informed them, quick to back herself up. "Now I know this sounds bad, I really do, but we are aware of his healing abilities, so as long as we don't shatter his gem, he'll recover quickly, we just need to subdue him before he wakes back up."
"Healing powers or not, what could have possibly made you decide this is what you should do over trying to talk to him?" Peridot questioned, still very against everything they were planning here. "Why did we go from kidnapping to beating him up?"
Garnet decided that she would explain, having not told them about their most recent encounter with him. "Well...when you three were out training a few days ago, we had an encounter and declaration of war from Homeworld, this much you know, but what we didn't tell you is that..Steven is the one who stopped by." She began, earning some commotion from the three of them for keeping such a secret, but they stopped after she put her hand up to silence them.
"Steven came by and he was looking to fight everyone, but you all were gone, so he didn't launch his attack immediately. No, instead, he wanted to retrieve a corrupted Gem from the temple, and when we told him no...he poofed Amethyst and used her as a hostage; Steven had her gem just a tap away from being shattered, so we gave him what he wanted and he ended up leaving with all of the uncorrupted Homeworld Gems. Steven said we had one week exactly to get ready, that leaves us three days before he comes to colonize earth and get rid of us."
"I can't believe it...he really is a tyrant, just like them now." Bismuth said with defeat in her voice, obviously unhappy that the boy she had come to know as a good friend and a strong ally, had completely joined Homeworld and become a Diamond.
"No!" Lapis spoke harshly, surprising everyone in the room. "I don't care what you say, I don't care how far gone you think he is, this is Steven we're talking about here, we can't just fight him! You're his family! How dare you be the ones to even suggest such a thing!"
"Lapis, calm down, we don't like it either, but he's just too powerful just defend against and he's not in the right headspace to reason with, we just need to knock him unconscious and find a way to keep him subdued, we'll figure out what to do with him from there..." Pearl informed her, somewhat offended at what she had said.
"I will not fight the boy who saved me from that prision! You three are the ones who kept me hidden away in the first place, why would I ever fight against him for you?! Come one Peridot, tell them they're being unreasonable!" The blue Gem urged her friend, knowing that she could trust her to be on her side.
"Lapis...they have a point ya know. I know how you feel about all of this, I really do, but maybe they're right, maybe we can't just always take the defensive rout against him...after he poofed you back on homeworld for the second time, he was about to shatter you, and if he almost shattered Amethyst as well, then what's to stop him from doing the same to any of us? Steven helped me too, but we can't help him if we're just attempting to defend ourselves against him, who, need I remind you, is a Diamond." Peridot responded, knowing there would likely be backlash from this decision.
"Are you serious right now?! He made you a Crystal Gem despite the fact you had been trying to kill him for the longest time! You went through building the drill together, saving the planet together, does that mean nothing to you?! I'll be shattered before I hurt him!" The water witch argued, seemingly unable to be swayed.
"Well guess what Lapis, you're the one he wants to fight, and without you, we don't stand even a fraction of a chance!" Amethyst spoke up, almost wanting to join the blue Gem in this argument. "That thing isn't Steven, Steven is gone, and the only way we might ever get him back is if we trap him and make sure he stays trapped until we figure something out."
"You don't even know what you're doing?! You're just planning on imprisoning him and keeping him that way until you somehow just miraculously stumble upon a way to change him?! You expect me to help you imprison Steven?! What kind of sick joke is this?!" She continued to get even angrier if that was possible, the newly fixed sink now shooting water up into the air.
"Listen, we don't have a choice in this! Wether you like it or not, Steven is coming here to fight and shatter us before he cultivates the earth. He has shown himself to be acting independently and not under White's direct control anymore, as he is fully aware of what she did, so we can't just go after her to stop this anymore...I know you care for him deeply, we're his family, so of course we don't deprive any joy from this either, but this is what's best for him." Garnet tried once more to convince her.
"...No, I won't do it, I thought I knew you all, I thought you were the good guys, but obviously I was wrong, and you know what, when he comes here, I hope he shatters all of you." She spoke with a hateful glare as she turned to Peridot, not even wasting her breath on the sad green Gem.
"L-Lapis, please, wait!" Peridot tried to call out for her, but it was too late, Lapis had already formed her wings and flew out through the roof, their best hope of winning this fight leaving them. "Lapis!"
"Peridot,...she can't be persuaded...we just have to hope for the best and make a plan." Pearl spoke as she set a hand on the smaller Gem's shoulder, sympathizing with her greatly. "Steven will be here very soon, we need to bring everyone else toge-" The white Gem stopped in the middle of her sentence as the power shut down.
"Oh great, we just got the power back on, what's happening now?" Amethyst complained as she crossed her arms, obviously becoming increasingly annoyed. The group stood there for a while, talking about the Lapis and Steven situation until there was banging on their door.
Pearl was the one to answer, seeing mayor Nanefua standing outside. "Hey, where has the power gone this time? This is the second time that your wacko alien stuff has taken out the town's power, aren't we supposed to be working together now? You didn't even warn us about that ship that came here the other day."
Pearl closed the door and rushed over to Garnet, speaking quietly as she glanced back to the door. "Garnet, they say the power is out across the entire town and they're blaming us, what do we do?" She asked their leader, becoming increasingly worried about a potential attack happening three days earlier than it was supposed to.
"I'll handle this." The fusion spoke stoically as she made her way to the door, pulling it open to see the small mayor. "This is not Gem related, you need to leave, now."
"We are not going anywhere; you Crystal Gems have explaining to do, Fryman said he saw Steven's dad being drug back to his van unconscious by one of you right after those pink legs left for the second time, there have been unknown space ships coming and going recently, and we haven't seen Steven since he left, but we have seen you, it's about time you tell us what is happening now that you've put the town in jeopardy." She ranted, Amethyst having thought that she was a lot sneakier when she was dumping Greg off in his van.
"Listen, there are family matters going on, yes, but they have nothing to do with any of you, just like this power outage has nothing to do with us, now you need to leave." Garnet ordered, refusing to bring the townies in on their personal life, or tell them that Steven of all people was going to destroy the planet.
Nanefua went to argue back when suddenly her phone, the phones of her agents, and Pearl's phone all went off, making loud almost screeching sounds before Steven's voice could he heard. Though the mayor didn't recognize his now deeper voice at first, she could definitely see that it was him through the image of the hybrid on her screen.
"Rebel Gems, your time is coming to an end soon, so I just thought I'd remind you that you need to fight back this time, cause I'm not holding back or making any deals this time around. Nevertheless, I've recorded this to set up a location for our battle: the strawberry field that once held all those fusion weapons. You are to come there with everyone. Now, I'll have some errands to run first, but after that, me and my Gems will take care of you all, allowing me to go back to Beach City with the Lapis and have a proper fight with her. I suggest you prepare, because after I beat you, there will be an attack launched on the planet. Anyways, be ready by midnight of the selected day. Good luck rebels, and may the Authority forever reign." He spoke, his malevolent grin never leaving his face before the message started over,
"Is that Steven?..." Nanefua questioned as she starred at the Diamond who had changed very much. "Hmph, do you still want to say this isn't a Gem related issue then? Now you have to explain things."
"Listen, we don't have time for this, we need to start getting everything ready, and we don't need to worry about what some human wants to know." Pearl piped up as she moved past Garnet, slamming the door shut and turning to the others. "Bismuth, go gather the others, we're going to rig the battlefield."
"Right, I'm on it." Bismuth nodded as she turned to make her way onto the warp pad. The rainbow Gem didn't completely agree with what they were proposing, and honestly doubted that they could go through with it, but when it came down to it, this plan was the closest they were going to get to a victory.
Amethyst was still hesitant about the whole thing, but if they hadn't did what Steven wanted...well, he would've shattered her. She knew that their Steven would never do such a thing, but she also knew that they had to fight back against whatever this thing was if they wanted to get him back, because if they just kept trying to defend themselves without fighting, they would all end up dead.
Pearl was well aware of how strong Steven's regeneration power could be, as Peridot had told her about their little encounter where he survived having a hole in his torso, so she wasn't worried about hurting him, just the chance that this could harm their ability to say they actually cared about him. Nevertheless, it was a chance she was willing to take.
Garnet seemed to be the only one who was all in, as she had faced Steven in battle before and lost, and seeing as it was likely he had only gotten stronger...well, she really wasn't too worried about hurting him while going all out, especially if he could heal.
Peridot wasn't planning on actually hurting him as much as just defending everyone else, as she was still occasionally haunted by the memory of his bloodied form hunched over right in front of her because of what she had done. Nevertheless, she was more worried about Lapis at the moment, but at the same time, she couldn't help Lapis feel better if the world was colonized by homeworld, so she had to focus on helping everyone out with Steven first.
"So, where do we plan to keep him? He can rip and tear through metal, he's too strong to pin down, he's too fast and powerful to threaten him from moving with violence, and that's all useless information when you think about how hard it will be to actually knock him out." Peridot spoke up, interested to hear how they thought they were going to win.
"Well, Pearl is going to keep him busy with her spear in close quarters combat, Amethyst is then going to tie him up with her whip, and I'll have to move in for the actual attack as soon as she does that, seeing as it probably won't hold for long." Garnet explained. "This would've been much easier with Lapis, I'm sure she could've chain him up in the ocean or something, but even then, that might be a bit too much, Steven is still in there somewhere after all."
"So basically you have no plan on how to hold him after you catch him then?" Peridot questioned, seemingly annoyed with their lack of planning. "We're dealing with an entire Diamond with power we have never experienced before right now, and your plan is to just wing it?"
"I was thinking something along the lines of rerouting Rose's room to one of our gems, but the fact remains that there is always a chance that he could force it to listen to him, because at its core, it is his room technically." Pearl gave her idea.
"I'm just generally unsure how to go about trapping someone with his kind of powers: he'd rip bars off the walls, he's immune to destabilization, he would likely just tear off any chains we put on him, he could use his bubble to force his way out of any box or something, he would wreak havoc on whoever's gem we put him inside, and we can't exactly go to the humans for help because they would experiment on him and maybe even us, and even if they wouldn't, none of them would stand a chance before him." Garnet listed off just a few ways she thought about trapping him, all being failures. "At least if we had Lapis trap him, there's basically an endless supply of water for her to use against him, but even then, he had two Lazulies with him last time he came here."
"Ugh, don't remind me." Amethyst said, rolling her eyes. "He got all handsy with one and frenched her right in front of us just to spite Connie."
"Then there is all the uncorrupted Gems he returned to Homeworld with, basically giving him an army the size of our own to fight back with, not to mention that if we actually manage to do this, we'll have all of Homeworld after us not too long after." Pearl mulled over the consequences of their plan.
"Well maybe we won't have to subdue him with violence against him?" Amethyst offered up, coming up with a secondary plan. "Listen, he hates our guts, but those Gems that were with him...maybe we could use one as leverage? Threaten to shatter them if he doesn't call off Homeworld or something?"
"Maybe, but at the same time, his powers are controlled by his emotions...I don't want to know what would happen if he gets that angry." Garnet reminded her, thinking back to the damage he did just by getting mildly angry with them.
"Right...I guess we just gotta figure it out when we get there then." Amethyst sighed, becoming somewhat scared of the idea of fighting him...he almost shattered her after all. "We should get to the strawberry field then, we won't stand a chance if we don't at least set up some traps or something."
They were about to leave when there was banging on the door. "Guys, I saw the message on my tv!" Connie could be heard from outside, prompting Pearl to answer, opening the door for her. "It was on the television as well?" Pearl asked, looking over to their own broken television. "
"Yeah, and apparently it wasn't only us who saw it, the literal president of the United States made an official announcement, thankfully saying that it was just a prank." Connie informed them, as she walked inside. "On a different topic than our incompetent government; that power outage had to be him, or at least homeworld in general."
"Yeah, the mayor even tried to get involved before the message was sent out, but we told her to buzz off, cause I mean, this is a family matter, it has nothing to do with them after all." Amethyst shrugged as she started making her way back over to the warp.
"Wait, where are you guys going?" Connie questioned, now noticing that Garnet was still waiting on the warp pad. "I actually have free time for today, so I can totally help you guys with whatever you're doing if it's going to help us get Steven back.
The Gems looked between each other awkwardly, Garnet deciding to be the one to speak up. "Listen, we have decided to take more...offensive measures against Steven for when he comes here next time. Now, you saw just how powerful Steven has become, and he seemed to have a distaste for organic beings like yourself, so I can't bring you into this with a clear conscious."
Wait, wait, wait, are you saying you're going to fight Steven?" Connie questioned them, obviously going to be another person who was against this. "I'm not so sure how comfortable I am with that, I mean he's part human, we can't just poof him."
"No, but we can do the next best thing and make him unconscious, that way we can figure out how to contain him while we try and bring our Steven back, I can't stress enough that we aren't going to be fighting to the death here." Pearl spoke up immediately.
"But we won't be holding back either, he's too strong for us to do that and expect to come out of that fight alive." Garnet added, thinking back to her fight with him. "He can heal, so as long as we aren't aiming for his Gem, everything should be fine."
"I mean, I understand after our last meet up with him that you would think it to be impossible to get through to him, but don't you think we're jumping the gun?" The human continued to try and argue. "I'm sure if we just wait a while and give it time, we can figure something else out."
"We don't have time, he will be here in three days." The fusion continued, having already tried finding a way to avoid this. "Connie, Steven wants to destroy the earth, that means your friends, your family, and every other human you've even so much as passed on the street will die. In the end, fighting Steven is the best option."
"I guess when you put it like that...right then, I'll be there to help fight then." Connie agreed, determination burning within her. "We'll stop Steven, and then we'll help him get back to his normal self so he can call off the invasion."
"Actually Connie...you have to stay here." Pearl informed her, knowing Connie of course wouldn't agree with this. "Now before you say anything, think of it this way: we are trained Gems going onto a battlefield against other trained Gems and a Diamond. Now while we are fighting this unlikely battle, they will be invading earth, coming to kill off all the human life on it so they can begin cultivation without any disruptions, so if you're risking your life on the battlefield, who is protecting your parents?"
"She's right Connie, we have nearly two hundred Gems to fight with us, there would be no point in one human joining this: if we lose, you die, but if we win, you still would've been the weakest on the battlefield and likely hurt very bad." Garnet explained to her. "You'd be risking your life for no reason."
"The weakest on the- What were you guys training me for if not exactly this?! I spent day after day learning how to fight, how to help keep the earth safe, and now you don't want me fighting?! I don't get it!" Connie shouted, her own little outburst coming out.
"No, I trained you to fight by Steven's side, you were the sword, he was the shield." Pearl reminded her. "So if a knight goes into war with only her sword despite learning to fight with her shield always by her side, then what do you think will happen? You were meant to fight with Steven, not against him. And while I'm confident that you would do well out there, I'm not confident enough to actually throw you against homeworld's forces, especially if Steven will be there in this state. Now, as your mentor, I order you to stay home and keep your parents safe, is that clear?"
"...Yes ma'am." She said reluctantly, not even looking the Gem in her eyes, the human girl obviously upset that she was going to be excluded when it came to saving the planet after all that time she spent training. Connie decided against staying any longer, instead, going outside and hopping on Lion: the one who brought her here so fast in the first place.
"She might be upset now, but we don't need a repeat of what happened when Steven came back to help us with Jasper and Peridot, cause it most definitely won't end the same way as it did with him." Garnet reassured the Pearl as she made her way back to the warp pad. "But for now, we need to get ready, ok?"
"Right, let's go." Pearl agreed with a sigh as she followed, standing next to the fusion.
-=End Of Chapter=-
Well there you have it, Steven is preparing an attack, the Gems are going to fight back this time, the government has addressed the message, and Connie isn't aloud to attend the fight.
On a different note, if you want to interact with Tyrant Steven and his Spinel, mY diSCoRd sErVeR iS sTiLL oPeN. Lmao, idk man, if ya'll wanna join, my Discord name is Erebus #3732 the number isn't part of my name, it's just the number my account has assigned to it, just in case you're new to it.
Well, I'm not exactly sure what else to say, so I'll just do my outro I guess haha:
Good morning, good night, or good afternoon, I'll see you all again soon
