Author's Note: Hey again! Welcome to another (late night) chapter of Steven Universe! We're really starting to get into the gritty parts of the story, and I'd love to hear what you think! If you like what you read, or if you didn't, be sure to leave a Review! I always take your thoughts into account as I continue to craft the Danger Watch universe! Anyway, without further ado, let's get into the chapter!

Chapter 9 - Rose Quartz

As Peridot arrived on the deck of the Hand Ship, she couldn't shake an odd feeling in the pit of her chest. Her plan had gone seamlessly: the galaxy warp was operational and soon, they would be able to link it to the Homeworld network and conquer this scrap of rock once and for all. Her Diamond would shower her with praise, and even her smug captain would be forced to show her some recognition.

It was everything she had ever wanted.

And yet… There was that feeling. A sinking feeling that she couldn't place. She knew one thing: she didn't like it.

All Hand Ships were equipped with a warp station near the rear of the ship. These were used to make the boarding and offboarding of the vessel easier. This was where Peridot teleported to from the Sky Spire, as she had the coordinates saved on her wrist computer. Unfortunately, the placement of the warp station made for a long walk to the command deck, and all of that time ignoring the eyes of her Ruby subordinates put her into her own head. She was wanton to get caught up in her thoughts on her own, but long, silent hallways were not exactly a deterrent to her wandering mind.

Despite the sinking feeling not going away, Peridot felt a bit of relief as she arrived on the deck of the ship. Having a task might distract her from her addled mind. Perhaps this was simply one of the supposed 'attacks of anxiety' that era 2 Peridots were rumored to be afflicted with. Shaking her head, she prepared to address the captain, who was standing up and out of her chair, looking at the viewport. There was a sound echoing across the deck, and Peridot realized, with some confusion, that it was the captain's laughter. A mirthful, low chuckle that nearly blended seamlessly with the muted sounds of explosions from outside. Casting her gaze at the viewport, Peridot discovered the source of her captain's apparent amusement.

Before them, dashing across a field of sand (Peridot knew they were referred to as "beaches") was a gem. She was tall, with muscular legs, and a burgundy color scheme. She had three eyes, each focused and determined as she ran, leaping and dodging. Every few seconds, an earth-shattering beam of energy came ricocheting out of the pointed index finger of the Hand Ship, which did a slow swivel in the air, at the behest of the Ruby crewmates, to stay locked onto their target.

"Galaxy Warp is operational, Captain Jasper."

As Peridot stood beside her to watch the light show, the captain seemed to finally notice her.

"Technician Peridot," she said, her face suddenly solid as stone, as if she had never been chuckling. "Glad you finally made it. Look what we've found."

"Another fusion?" Peridot said, wrinkling her nose slightly. The comment caught the larger gem's attention, and she turned to leer down at the technician with yellow eyes.

"Another?"

It was the 400th try that worked. Garnet had tried too many different methods to count. At one point she had simply done nothing, waiting to see how long it would take for the Hand Ship to simply grow impatient and blast away. It hadn't taken very long. Across her various attempts she employed a variety of tactics, from conversation to confrontation, sneaking to sniping. Then, on reset number 400, she had vaulted out of a side window, sneaking along the cliffs beside the temple, until the Hand Ship had spotted her.

Now, she was vaulting across the beach, dodging laser blasts, a couple of beads of sweat dripping down her forehead, from the massive expenditure of her power. It had been too long since the last time she had pushed herself. Far too long. A part of Garnet cursed herself for getting so lax, but another part of her reasoned that she couldn't have known, and there was no use getting beat up over it and risking her concentration. The latter part of herself won the argument… As she often did.

She was running out of room.

A particularly narrow miss sent her rolling in the sand, trying to scramble for cover behind a large rock formation before the Hand Ship could recharge. She was running on fumes. Another reset might be her last.

Luckily, she was able to drag herself behind the shelter of the uneven stones, and catch at least a moments breath, her back against them. A routine sweep of the Sky Spire, especially with Pearl at the helm, should not have taken this long. Though, she reasoned, they did have the added burden of Steven. That could change the odds of their situation dramatically. Garnet swore again as she heard the now chillingly familiar sound of the cannon's beam gaining energy. The blast would tear through her cover, she knew, and probably her too if she didn't move. She had barely gotten four seconds of breath.

The laser fired.

Garnet didn't move fast enough.

Opal did.

The moment just before the laser was released from the tip of the Hand Ship's forefinger, an arrow of light went streaking across it, throwing the finger off course and sending the laser smashing harmlessly into a nearby dune. Garnet saw the beam miss, and sucked in a breath, before rushing out from behind the rocks. She saw Opal, standing on the beach, her bow drawn and aimed at the Hand Ship, her long, pearlescent hair being blown by the ship's distortion of gravity.

"Garnet!" She called. The usually towering Garnet was a fraction of the giant alien's height. "Are you ok? You look beat up!"

"I'm fine!" Garnet shouted over the loud droning the Hand Ship had begun emitting. It was a warbling, pulsating noise that seemed to bely a malfunction in the main cannon. "What's important is that Steven is ok!"

"Hey, Garnet!" Steven called out, from standing behind Opal's leg.

Garnet's eyes widened in horror.

"You brought Steven?" She shouted at Opal.

"Main artillery is nonoperational. I have bots going to fix it."

"How long?"

"Er- Approximately 5 earth minutes."

Jasper growled. That was too long.

"Is that new piece of gear operational?"

"Well... Technically, yes, but I have only tested it on peb-"

"Lower the ship to the beach," Jasper interrupted, rising from her chair and pulling her cape over her shoulders.

"Captain?"

"Don't make me repeat myself."

With that, Jasper was gone from the deck, leaving the technician Peridot alone with a crew of Ruby soldiers and her own thoughts.

"Technician Peridot?" One Ruby called. Her gem was located directly where her left eye would be. Peridot turned to her, eyes narrowed, to signify that she could continue. "Shall I lower us to the beach?"

Peridot paused, and then nodded. Seconds later, the ship began to descent, opening the "hand" of the ship so that it was now splayed, palm up, fingertips touching the shoreline. A ping on the main dashboard told her that the captain was about to get on the lift and exit the ship. As she watched the little icon move, she thought of the piece of equipment that Jasper had referred to. Again, there was that feeling at the core of her being. The technician squirmed. Why would it not go away?

"Hnn…. Hold the lift!" Peridot said suddenly, so much so that she startled one of the nearby Ruby's. The Ruby with the gemstone eye turned to her again.

"Technician Peridot?" She said questioningly. Peridot winced, and regained her composure before issuing her next order.

"Hold the lift. I'm… I'm going up with the captain."

"What is going on? Why is Steven here?" Garnet demanded.

Opal clutched her head, and with a sudden burst of light, she vanished, and Amethyst and Pearl took her place. Both began to quickly rattle off explanations of the events that had transpired, and even Garnet had to eventually hold up a hand to cease the incoherent chatter. Just as she did, the Hand Ship began to twist in mid air, turning its palm towards the sky, extending its fingers like some kind of gangplank.

"Get him out of here!" Garnet said, taking a few steps forward to put herself between the ship and the others. Amethyst and Pearl swapped glances. Garnet looked pretty exhausted, and they were worried about her facing whatever would come out of the ship on her own. They stood their ground. Garnet turned over her shoulder and growled. "Steven! Go!"

Steven, however, stood frozen. The shock of the situation was beginning to dawn on him, and his eye were glued in horrified fixation on the Hand Ship. Garnet grimaced. Then, there was a loud hissing sound, and the smoke that signified an atmosphere change began to billow out of the palm of the Hand Ship. Moments later, two figures presented themselves. One was tall and broad shouldered, matching Garnet's stature, with a mane of wild white hair, and a black mantle and cape flowing out menacingly behind her. Beside her stood an all too familiar green gem, wearing cybernetic enhancements.

Upon seeing the expressions of anger and pain on the opposing gems faces, Peridot felt no remorse. She knew of the danger they presented to her Diamond's interests. To all of the Diamond's interests. However, looking past the rebels, to the irredeemably pathetic human, something continued to writhe in the technician's chest. It gnawed at her. Seeing, in his eyes, the same fear that had been there before. When he had been scrabbling at her hand… The gem actually winced. Luckily for her, her superior was busy leering down upon the rebel gems to notice.

What was this?

"So," Jasper called down, splintering Peridot's inner monologue with her booming, razor edged alto. "This is all that's left, huh?"

Silence ensued, her words echoing across the beach. The only noise came from the waves and the crackling of green flames on the beach, all of which became mere white noise to the combatants. Jasper sneered.

"I must say… I expected more… You don't have any back up, do you?" She predicted correctly. Her eyes shifted from one gem to the other. "A defect. A Pearl. A shameless permafusion. And… What, is that?"

"It's nothing," Peridot said somewhat quickly. "It's just a human. They're harmless natives to this planet. It must be their little butler or someth-"

"I know what a human is," Jasper cut in.

Steven listened in stunned silence as the words left the gem's mouth. Once again, he found himself slightly surprised that he could even understand her. Watching her lips move, they didn't match up to any of the English words he was hearing in his brain, and yet, it seemed to translate with no effort. Perhaps this was one of his burgeoning gem powers. Or, perhaps he had always known how to speak this language. Or, even stranger, maybe whatever language the gems spoke natively simply translated itself to whomever heard it? Steven scratched the last idea off of the list, because he was pretty sure he had read that in a comic book, but the first two ideas were so compelling that he only checked back in at the word "permafusion."

He looked to Amethyst, who glanced down at him once, a nervous bead of sweat dripping down the side of her face.

"Amethyst?" He began to ask.

"Keep cool, Steve-o," she said through gritted teeth, more abruptly than she intended to. "Just let us talk this out."

Steven was young, and he was even naïve, but even he knew that Amethyst was trying to make the situation appear less dire than it was this time. His expression darkened in a bit.

"But I'm-"

"Steven! Go! I'm serious!" Garnet interrupted, still holding her ground as a bulwark between the others and the two figures.

On the palm of the ship, Jasper crossed her arms, and was shaking her head.

"I can't believe it," she said. "Here I was expecting to come out and find a host of rebels to wipe out head to head… Instead, I find this sorry lot. I mean, this is the so called Terran Resistance? This is Rose Quartz's army? And their leader nowhere in sight."

The large, orange gem looked down to Peridot.

"How long on the cannon?"

"Erh- Approximately two of this planet's minutes."

"Feh," Jasper exclaimed, turning and walking back, apparently towards the lift with a whip of her cape. "This was a waste of my time. Make the preparations, and then fire when ready. All weapons on standby."

"But- Jasper!"

The captain turned abruptly to glare golden daggers at Peridot, cutting her outburst short and turning her into a meek subordinate in the same moment.

"I mean- Captain Jasper. Launching all of our combat weapons would result in a severe cut to our fuel supply. We might struggle to get back to Homeworld. Plus, it will leave us vulnerable to counterattack."

The tension was cut by a deep belly laugh from Jasper. She actually held her side and tossed her head back in the throngs of laughter, before shaking her head and looking down at her technician.

"Counterattack? Pardon my optimism, Technician Peridot, but I find it hard to fear any sort of counterattack from this bunch. You have my orders."

With that, she kept walking… Past the lift that would take them down into the ship, and onto the end of one of index finger. There, the captain thought smugly, she would have a good view of the end of the Crystal Gems. Peridot, not wanting to further question Jasper's orders, remained where she was, but began to press a number of images on her wrist hologram, before drawing a circle in the air with one of her mechanical digits. As she did so, the ship began to lift itself up from its position on the beach, pouring sand down from beneath the fingers, as it began to aim it's cannon. This time, it held each finger out flat, and each one began to glow and charge with various gem tech weaponry that was attached to the ends. The amount of kinetic force being charged began to whip the air up around the gems, tossing sand, hair, and debris in every direction. The ship began to aim.

"Steven! You have to go, NOW!" Garnet shouted, her voice carrying over the droning of the Hand Ship. Pearl and Amethyst glanced helplessly at him for a second, and then started towards him. The young half-gem shook his head, taking a step back. He looked back and forth from his family, the gems, and the charging rays of energy that were surrounding all of the hand ship's fingers.

"No, I-" He said, small tears in his eyes. There was a faint glow, emanating from below his shirt "I wanna fight, I wanna… I wanna help- I'm… I'm…"

The droning reached a peak.

The cannon's began to release their energy.

"I'M A CRYSTAL GEM TOO!"

ka-BOOOOOOM!

Smoke and sand filled the gem's visions. They through up their arms to defend themselves from the deadly blast, fearing the inevitable, and cursing themselves for not protecting Steven. And then… There was no blast. They each blinked. Then, they looked ahead. There was a faint, pink glow.

Standing in front of them was Steven.

He had summoned Rose's shield.

And it was 10 feet across.

The enormous, hard-light construct, with its complicated, crystalline, rose-like patterns, hovered in the air in front of Steven, who held his hands out as if he had tried to stop the laser blast with them. The sand in front of him had been charred and turned to ash and green fire, but as the smoke cleared, it was revealed that there was not a scratch on him, the gem's, or the Temple. Moment's after the shield manifested, it collapsed, and Steven dropped to one knee. Instantly, Pearl and Amethyst were at his side.

From her perch atop the Hand Ship, Jasper's expression was one of absolute disgust. She looked to Peridot, who was just as shocked, but less repulsed by what had just occurred. The technician sputtered for some kind of explanation, but had none, and Jasper waved her attempts away with a wave of her huge hand, striding forward. There was a distortion of sound in the air, and then with a flash of light, a huge, golden, hammer-shaped helmet appeared around the captain's head. She took one stride, and then dropped off of the side of the levitating gunship, landing with a heavy thw-ump on the sand below.

"That… was Rose Quartz's shield," the menacing alien said, walking forward through the crackling green flames towards Steven, discarding her cape in the sand as she did so. "So you must be her… But… why do you look like that?"

Then, there was a flash of light, and Jasper recoiled as, leaping up from behind Steven, Garnet appeared, delivering a solid punch to the orange gem's jaw. Taking a few steps back, Jasper grinned, rubbing a hand lightly over where she had been struck.

"Oh, good," she said. "I was hoping there'd be a fight!"

With the last syllable she reared back, just as Garnet rushed in with another enraged haymaker. The punch just barely missed, displacing enough air to blow Jasper's hair back. Then, with a heavy KLANG! Jasper headbutted Garnet, her heavy metal helmet connected with, and shattering, the latter gem's glasses. Recoiling, Garnet clutched her face, growling and tossing the splintered shades into the sand.

"Steven, run!" Was all she said, running forward to attempt to strike Jasper once more.

Then, just as she came in, the other gem produced something from her belt. Some kind of baton-like instrument that crackled with bright yellow electricity. The energy being emitted by the baton reflected in all three of Garnet's eyes before, with one deft slice, the blade-like end of the baton passed cleanly through her form, causing it to ripple, distort, and then split down the line of impact entirely. There was a huge blast of smoke, and then it blew away, there was a crater in the ground, with a pair of round gemstones inside of it. Jasper stooped, collecting the gems in her hand and stowing them away before continuing her slow gate forward. Before Amethyst or Pearl could move, there was the sound like air being vacuum-sealed. A layer of pink energy suddenly appeared between them and the outside world. Steven had summoned his bubble defiantly, and was holding his arms out to his sides, willing it to stay impenetrable.

"I just don't get it," Jasper said, her voice slightly muffled through the walls of the bubble, but booming enough so that she could still be heard. "I fought against your armies during the war. I respected your tactics. But this? It's… sickening. How are you so… weak?!"

With that, she headbutted the bubble, and Steven's will was not strong enough. The bubble shattered on impact, and the force of it send he, Amethyst and Pearl flying back. Jasper stooped her ground, however, and snatched Steven out of the air by the collar of his shirt. Exhausted by the use of his power, he hung there, limply, blinking and trying to clear his vision as he looked into the deadly, dangerous yellow eyes of Jasper.

"I don't know what your plan was," she growled, in a voice that only he could hear, even as Amethyst and Pearl rushed forward to stop her. "But take a look around. Your base is ruined, your armies are splintered… You. Have failed."

With that, her head came rushing in towards Steven's, and that was the last thing he saw before everything went black.