Another pair of events this time with Peridot trying to get a new power while the Crystal Gems hit their first target. Hope you enjoy the first chapter of 2021!
The moment Steven opened his eyes, he almost had to close them again as they stung in pain. All he could make out was a mass of blinding white light in front of him. Once he managed to focus again, he quickly saw Peridot glancing around looking unsure about the situation either.
"Well, as fascinating as this is," she drawled, "I'd very much appreciate some warning next time before you enter my subconscious. I briefly had the worst headache of my life."
"Heh, sorry. Guess I need more practice with doing this on purpose," he shrugged, "But, well, this isn't usually what happened. All three times I did this before, there was something in here."
Figuring they had nothing better to do, the two started walking in a random direction when they both spotted a small object. Steven knelt down to pick it up, only to see it was a solid black hole in the ground with no visible bottom. When he was near enough to touch it, it suddenly expanded from the size of a quarter to a porthole on the ship.
That was not the only change, though. The two suddenly looked down into the hole and saw it was now a display. It showed Peridot walking through a silver metallic hallway while a green agate escorted her to a room filled with sleek computer monitors and other peridots working tirelessly.
"What's this?" Steven asked, only to see Peridot get an odd look in her eye.
"This was my first day on Homeworld. Heh, all of that equipment is archaic. It actually matches stuff on Earth…"
Before long, Peridot's past self was shown a chair to work at and soon she was working the controls like she had been doing this for far longer than five minutes.
"Almost forgot," Steven remarked, "How gems are just made, I mean."
"Yes, the concept of growth and evolution are foreign concepts to us. The same day I was created, I went to managing the growth of other gems in a Kindergarten on some colony I didn't even know the name of."
"Do you miss it?"
"The implications of what I was doing, no. But I won't deny I miss the idea of nurturing something to perfection with my skills and know-how."
Steven nodded at the thought, but something was not adding up with him. Judging by her earlier attitude, he would not have thought nostalgia for her old job was the issue. The problem was compounded when another portal opened up behind them showing yet another scene of Peridot working at Homeworld. And then a third above them, a fourth next to it and soon dozens more were cropping up like flies.
"We're gonna be here a while…" moaned Peridot while Steven trying to grab at the outside of the portals to see if he could manipulate them somehow. He figured that was better than just sitting around watching centuries worth of Peridot doing her old job.
Outside of Steven's room, the rest of the Crystal Beacon was operating normally even as the logs dictated that they would arrive near the first shield generator for the Aveturescence in a few hours. The training had mostly come to a halt as the group all wanted themselves at their best in case there was an emergency. As everyone was now aware that two of their members would be unavailable, the Crystal Gems were anxious that a battle could break out any minute.
The Off-Colors had fully assembled on the bridge, all eyes either on the horizon or their consoles to detect the first sign of a problem. The tension in the halls of the rest of the ship had grown with some pacing back and forth in waiting, some trying to lighten the situation with jokes and others simply stood at the ready.
The agonizing waiting finally ended when Rutile immediately spotted something on the radar to her right.
"Four crafts detected!" she warned the rest of the bridge, "Prepare to intercept, Captain?"
"Roger that," the yellow fusion replied, "Rhodonite, prime the nova blasters before we engage. Padparadscha, alert me if any enemies board the ship. I'll spread the word to the Crystal Gems to fend them off."
"Aye-aye!"
When the first Homeworld fighter opened fire on the ship, the shields were ready and soon the Crystal Beacon was locked in combat. While it was far larger and slower than the enemy ships, it could also take far more punishment and dish out far more damage. With one turn of the blasters, two Star Skippers were blown to smithereens although their pilots were left floating in space to await pickup.
Seeing this, the other two pilots quickly realized they were outgunned and turned tail back to their base which also gave Topaz an idea.
"Rhodonite, activate the thrusters and follow those ships," she commanded, "We're aiming to infiltrate the satellite with the shield generator and it's likely they were launched from it or a station near it."
"On it!" the other fusion replied, putting in the commands to propel the ship forward.
"Self-repairs already underway," Fluorite reported from below, "Negligible damage was sustained."
"Good to hear," the captain replied, "I'll send word out to the rest of the ship. They're already on edge enough without being left in the dark."
As she got to doing just that, Rhodonite put in the commands to turn the ship towards the east to follow the retreating spacecrafts and hopefully be one step closer to reaching Homeworld.
As the news spread around the ship and those near portholes could see the stars around them shift and turn as the ship changed course, the others all felt a mixture of trepidation and relief that they were getting closer to their destination.
"Is this normal?" Lapis asked, "This feeling of… I don't even know how to describe it."
"You mean wanting to get there and not get there at the same time?" Pearl said next to her in the corridor while polishing her spear to occupy her hands, "It's all too common in times like this."
"How did you deal with it all the time?"
"You focus on what you'll do afterwards. Simple as that."
Lapis seemed to flinch at that that, causing Pearl to look up from what she was doing. The blue gem was sweating and looking very ready to be sick.
"And do you know what else helps?" she added, looking her in the eye, "Think about the thing you'll do first when it's over. When, not if."
"I'll do that… Thanks."
Elsewhere, Bismuth simply pacing around the engine deck to take her mind off of things when Garnet walked up to her.
"Hey," the dreadlocked gem greeted, "Got anything to report?"
"Nope, you heard everything. Steven's still occupied, but that's the biggest worry on my mind. I know a lot of things but altering a gem like this is beyond me. As strange as it is to admit, I need to just let him be."
"Tough for you too, huh?" Bismuth shrugged, "I still can't believe that nice-as-can-be kid could pound the life out of me any second."
"Hm?"
"I mean… The ships we just shot down. Where are the pilots?"
"Floating around in a vacuum. And honestly, that's probably for the best. We don't need to agitate Homeworld any further."
Bismuth seemed to look away at that, suddenly busying herself with monitoring things with Peridot's tablet and promptly walking away. Garnet considered following her, but decided to let the issue rest for a moment. She kept in mind to mention this to Steven once he was up again.
Satellite Alpha was a small station orbiting a purple uninhabitable gas giant. The base was an impressive piece of engineering even by Homeworld's standards given that the entire station was mechanical. A startling white sphere several miles in diameter where every inch of it was metal designed to project part of the Aveturescence energy field that protected the empire' home planet which also housed several squadrons of fighters, its own self-defense grid and hundreds of guards.
From the control tower overlooking this station stood a dark-green gem stood. Standing over nine feet tall with a physique similar to many of the jaspers under her command, her vision spheres scanned every inch of space visible from the windows separating Alpha's central command from the vacuum. She noticed a few minute details had changed, but nothing worth worrying herself over. While vigilant as always, she was on extra-high alert now that news of the Crystal Gems' voyage to Homeworld had been circulated.
She only stopped her pondering when she heard loud footsteps coming from the behind the door into the room. She promptly turned to meet the new arrival and soon was greeted by a panting nephrite.
"Commander!" she wheezed, "Two of my squad mates… Shot down by… A massive enemy craft… We need…"
"Will do," the green gem replied, "As soon as your craft is ready, resume patrolling. That will be all."
The one-eyed pilot saluted her superior before heading off to the hanger where her ship rested while the other gem strode over to the main communications line and soon broadcasted her voice to every ship in range.
"This is Tsavorite Facet-5E42 Cut 6XX, chief commander of Satellite Alpha. One of my patrols just came across an unknown craft which we have reason to believe is the rebellion's craft. They have returned fire and could be presently approaching this station. I formally request as many available ships to com here so that we can ambush the rebels before they reach Homeworld. That will be all."
Just as she closed the line, she checked the scanner and saw a blip appear on the edge of the station's radar. She allowed herself a small smirk at being proven right again and began sending out orders to her troops. If the Crystal Gems happened to be in her territory, Tsavorite would be keen to show them why crossing her path would be an awful idea.
While two sides were preparing to clash in the outside world, Steven and Peridot were fighting a different foe inside a mindscape: tedium. Steven had grabbed many of the portals showing Peridot's long and storied past on Homeworld and tried to find some pattern to all of the images popping up around them. Every single one he looked in, though, he found mostly the same thing.
The only major notes was when Peridot originally got her limb enhancers thanks to a promotion to the field agent she was when they met months ago.
"What did you get promoted for?" he asked, looking for anything to get him ahead.
"Just necessity," she replied glumly, "They lost several pad repair-gems to either faulty warp streams or environmental hazards. Or incompetence…"
"How does a warp stream break?"
"It's a very long explanation involving mechanics I'm fairly certain your entire species hasn't developed yet. We don't have for that."
"Alrighty then…" Steven scratched the back of his head hearing how despondent Peridot sounded, "So, I'm guessing you don't miss your limb enhancers?"
"Occasionally. I don't like always being the shortest person on the team and they had their functional benefits, but I do like doing things with my own hands."
As she said that, another portal opened up. Steven peered inside and actually recognized what it was. It was the thunderstorm right after Peridot had been freed from her bubble and eventually agreed to help the Crystal Gems. Then came another portal showing the Robot Olympics she competed against Pearl in complete with where she got punched across the face for her elitism.
"Ouch…" Steven winced, only for Peridot walk up next to him and watch as the punch got replayed on a loop over and over again.
"Heh, ironic, isn't it? All of my intellect and I can't stop a right hook…"
"Peri, I know Pearl isn't mad about that anymore. She said-"
"It's not a grudge I'm worried about! It's how helpless I was!"
Steven raised an eyebrow at that only for another portal to appear. This one showed the gem drill trying and failing to stop The Cluster and how Peridot panicked inside the machine of her own creation while Steven ended up chatting with the enormous amalgamation in his mind.
"Oh look," the techie snarked, "It happened again!"
"What happened again?" Steven asked, "We wouldn't have stopped The Cluster without you!"
Rather than answer him, she just grabbed the edge of the portal itself and threw it as far as she could. This meant it landed on the floor only ten feet away and kept playing the image only with the overbearing sound of drilling now filling the air around them.
Clutching his own ears to stop the hellish noise, Steven rushed over to shut the portal but instead another one opened in front of him. This one showed the gem's rather unfortunate showing in the Kindergarten against a corrupted gem run amok that literally ran circles around her. Like with the punch, the memory kept reemphasizing how Peridot was foiled by her own traps and the monster literally taunting her over it by playing those moments on a loop.
"Peridot, is that what this is all about?" Steven asked her directly, literally pushing the memory out of the way, "You feel weak?"
"Oh, gee, state the obvious!" the gem shouted, somehow overpowering the droning noise of the drilling, "It's not like you've known me for months now!"
"Peridot, you're probably the smartest person I know! All the inventions you've made, the know-how about how gems work, your metal powers…"
"And yet things keep failing! Either my inventions malfunction or I somehow mess everything up! How can I be so intelligent and yet screw everything up?!"
The memories kept appearing, literally forming a wall between the two in the mindscape as a ring of them surrounded Peridot. Now they had progressed to her failings since the recent scrapes with Homeworld started. From her having to be protected by Lapis from the robonoids attacking from the abandoned base, her warp pad protector being sabotaged and letting Jasper in, her failing to reverse engineer Brookite's suit for herself and then how her maintaining her one device let dozens of gems rampage across town during the major invasion.
Steven tried to power his way through the ring of displaying memories to reach now cowering Peridot inside as the sounds of so many scenes began to flood his ears until his head started pounding. It did not help the fact the boiling anger ripping through him. Even if he intentionally started this process, it did not stop him from picking up all of Peridot's emotions and chief amongst hers was anger.
"It's never good enough!" she bellowed, "I keep trying, I keep improving and it's still all a wash! Why am I even here?!"
The portals then all merged together, their sounds and images warping and distorting into a cacophony that made Steven's ears nearly melt before they all bunched together in front of them into a misshapen circle of flashing colors and blaring noises. Then, the sensual barrage stopped and left only a flat black hole in front of a rattled Steven and a still fuming Peridot. And then a pair of glaring yellow eyes emerged from the void.
"Oh no…" moaned Steven, having a sinking suspicion where this was going. The circle seemed to shift and morph around the eyes, changing shape and gaining depth while also growing exponentially. The eyes still stared at them even as an angular head formed behind them and now stood several dozens of feet above the two Crystal Gems. The towering silhouette then suddenly had golden cracks appear along its form until a stretch of its arms threw the flecks of black away revealing a perfect copy of Yellow Diamond. With its form revealed, however, it only stared at them and Steven could feel his stomach practically erupt in flames as Peridot glared back at her former boss.
"Alright, target is in sight," Rhodonite reported as their scanner picked up on Satellite Alpha. In the distance, all of them could see the gleaming white surface of the massive generator.
"Shields are online," Fluorite added from below.
"Padparadscha, I want you to fetch Lapis and Garnet and bring them here so they can infiltrate the satellite once we're in range."
"Yes, Captain!" The diminutive psychic then ran off the bridge and down into the corridors just as the first enemy fighters had come into their sightline. Seven fighters had come flying in a V-formation and tried assaulting the ship with laser blasts before splitting into multiple groups.
"Well, give them credit for impressive flying," Topaz muttered before turning her attention to Rutile, "Anything to report?"
"Almost no damage to shields. Should we move to counterattack them?"
"Only if they make a second run. They could very well just retreat."
"Except they aren't!" Rhodonite reported, "They're coming back and the scanner is picking up a lot of readings! Minimum twenty ships of unknown firepower!"
"Rutile, get the evasive thrusters prepped. We might have to do much more precision flying."
Soon the black void around them was a flurry of activity as the Crystal Beacon found itself flying straight into a small blockade with almost two dozens of the small fighters plus a bright white freighter shaped like an arm. While far smaller than a Diamond's personal vessel, it meant that this was no scouting force. The enemy had officially spotted them and was meeting them head-on.
Thankfully for the turncoat gems, the Crystal Beacon's saucer-like shape made it relatively agile given its impressive size comparable to a city block. As the fighters tried to run by the vessel peppering it with blasts, they would often find their shots missing as their much larger target veered out of the way. A few ships had also shot to smithereens already by the Beacon's much bigger lasers, but that did not deter the others.
As the battle was heating up, Lapis and Garnet filed onto the bridge with Padparadscha leading them. The psychic gem ran straight back to her post while Topaz briefly took her eyes off of the battle to address the two fighters.
"Alright, we're only a stone's throw away from the satellite. How comfortable do you feel about infiltrating it?"
"Wait, me?!" Lapis stuttered, "I-I don't know… I don't have any water to work with out here."
"We have a solution for that," Garnet assured her, "This ship has a water supply for you to tap into. It's no ocean like you're used to, but you've also gotten much better at improvising since joining up."
"But wouldn't that take away all the water Steven, his dad and the others need to drink?"
"I don't know how, but this ship can draw water from the surrounding hydrogen and oxygen molecules in space."
"How does… How did Peridot…"
"Don't ask. I just run with it. But the question with you still stands."
"I'll do my best…"
"Good, then all we need to do is outmaneuver this blockade and-" Topaz said before she suddenly stopped as all of the rumbling in the ship stopped. She swiveled her chair to face the bridge and saw all of the ships retreating.
"Did you defeat them that quickly?"
"Unsure," Rutile answered, "We only shot down about eight of them. That freighter just recalled the partially damaged ones before flying off towards the base."
"Peculiar… Fluorite, anything out of the ordinary."
"Nope… Shields are far from depleted… No sign of sabotage…"
"This doesn't seem right," Garnet noted, "I doubt they'd just surrender that quickly."
"Agreed," Topaz nodded, "But you two get into position while we approach the station."
"Okey dokey," Lapis saluted sarcastically before heading back down the halls while the ship slowly inched forward towards its first target. Rutile kept all four of her eyes glued to the scanner expecting some kind of trap but nothing appeared. The station got closer and closer as the gems all expected for something to go wrong at any second.
They were right to have that feeling, however, as Tsavorite watched them come closer and closer from her spot on the satellite's main tower. With the single push of a button, she activated the most vital part of Alpha's defense grid – The Anti-Luster.
Back on the Crystal Beacon, the ship was operating all as usual until the scanner completely turned black. Followed by every other screen on the bridge and then all of the overhead lights.
"What the…?!" gasped Topaz, "Fluorite, what's going on?"
"I have no idea!" she replied, "Everything's off! Even the emergency lights!"
"Everyone, watch out!" Padparadscha predicted, "They're about to de-power the whole ship!"
"WHAT?!" rang out from everyone on the bridge. The panic only worsened when Garnet literally smashed the door down with an armored fist with Pearl, Priyanka and Connie right behind her.
"Um, guys?" the doctor among them quipped, "I'm no spaceship expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't blow a fuse box on this thing!"
"They must have some kind of super-EMP or something!" Connie guessed, "Because literally the whole ship is dark! Even our rooms! We had to pry the doors open!"
"There's no doubt about it, this is some defense mechanism of that base," Topaz explained, "I don't know if it was device they fired on us or a built-in feature of the generator, but it's true. Is Peridot up yet?"
"Nope," Pearl said, "I checked Steven's room and they're both still out for the count."
"Oh great… No doubt Bismuth's already in the engine room with Fluorite so we'll have to see if they can somehow fix this. In the meantime, we should-"
The whole ship then rumbled, bringing a new wave of dreadful silence across the ship. It was only broken when Padparadscha made another prediction. "They're going to board the ship!
Pearl immediately looked to Connie and Priyanka. "Get to Steven's room and guard the entrance. Do not let in anyone you don't immediately recognize."
The two nodded and immediately shifted int other crystalline forms before rushing off to protect said room. On the ship's starboard side, a hole in the hull was created thanks to an undetected device fired by one of the enemy fighters. This device, a rhombic blue crystal about half a foot long, dug into the Beacon's hull itself and then projected portal into one of the walls allowing Homeworld gems to file in one by one.
In only minutes, the Crystal Beacon turned from a stable home away from home for the Crystal Gems into a battleground as the rebels found many hallways suddenly blocked with angry jaspers, amethysts and topazes trying to arrest them. Pearl had summoned her maximum amount of clones, Lapis had tapped into the water source of the ship to give herself some ammo, Greg was fully suited up already from training recently and even the Off-Colors stormed into the ship to help fight the invaders off. They would not let the Diamonds bully them on their home planet and the same went for their new ship.
As the chaos unfolded outside of the room, Steven and Peridot were staring up at the angry visage of a copy of Yellow Diamond. The half-gem tried transforming to combat her but found the full extent of his powers were locked away. That did not stop him from trying, though, as he clenched his teeth and tried summoning his other form while Peridot tried encouraging him.
"Come on, Steven! Smash that oversized clod before we get electrocuted!"
Unfortunately, that seemed to spur Yellow on and she raised her hand and let lightning fly from her fingers. Peridot barely dodged out of the way and Steven had to do the same as he could not even summon his shield here.
"Steven!" the gem said more worried as Yellow started stomping towards her, "I think this is your department!"
"Nothing is working!" he insisted, "I've never tried using my powers in here!"
Their conversation stopped when the diamond nearly squashed them both like bugs under her foot. She then let off another bolt of lightning and forced Peridot to scramble away on all fours before specifically chasing after her.
"HEELP! Steven, I've got nothing to work with here!"
"And you think that would save you?" taunted Yellow Diamond, "You have the engineering capabilities of a clump of mud!"
"S-Says you!"
As Peridot kept running, Steven resorted to gripping onto the diamond's ankle as she stalked after her prey just to keep up. He kept trying to encourage Peridot, but the diamond's constant trembling footprints, massive shots of lightning and stream of taunts drowned him out.
"What? No drill to escape this time?!"
"My own Pearl could build a better machine than you with the junk in one of my landfills!"
"Oh, you can control metal? Lot of good that will do you when I scatter your molecules!"
Steven was eventually forced to stay silent not only because of the copious noise, but from the sheer anger he was feeling. It made him want to scream at the top of his lungs and pound his own head into the nearest wall, like he could never accomplish anything, and it was better off he just disappeared. It actually made him think about all the times he failed adding a feeling of regret and disappointment to the bloodcurdling rage.
"SHUT UP!" Peridot bellowed, finally stopping to face the enormous matriarch, "I won't listen to you anymore!"
"Oh, really? Is anything I'm saying false? All I'm telling you is the truth about yourself!"
Steven was then thrown off of Yellow Diamond as she suddenly threw up her leg and kicked Peridot hard enough to send her flying for miles. The gem screamed in panic only to land on something relatively soft. Her brief relief turned into panic, though, when it turned to be Yellow's outstretched hand which quickly grabbed hold of her.
"You might just be the ultimate failure of a gem!" she yelled at Peridot, "A failure on Homeworld and even a failure of a rebel! But I suppose there is one thing you're good at…"
The diamond's face lit up in a sadistic grin before sending a massive jolt of power through Peridot and making her shriek leaving Steven praying that either he would figure out how to talk Peridot out of this or that all of the electric torture she was going through would somehow wake her up.
And to continue with the voice-actor list I gave a while ago, I imagine Stacey DePass as Tsavorite. But with that said, I hope you'll tune in for next time!
Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments in the reviews.
