The Crystal Gems arrive at Beta facility. What mysteries will this structure hold? Meanwhile, Steven meets up with a familiar gem.
...
With Holly Blue's guidance, the Gems were warped to a remote island. Upon their arrival, everyone immediately noticed the large body of water surrounding them in all directions, with no other landmarks in sight.
"He even had a facility in the middle of the ocean?!" asked a surprised Amethyst.
"Yes. As I'm sure your all aware, he made attempts to keep each facility's location a well kept secret from everyone not involved. Thankfully, with this location, he didn't need to establish the structure very far from the warp." noted Holly. "The facility is just beyond the hill there." As she said this, she pointed to a large hill near the warp.
With this info, the group began to move towards the peak of the landmark. Now atop the high ground, the group saw the facility. From the outside, it sat upon several square meters of the land with the appearance of a typical factory. The group noted its similarity to Charlie, but this structure didn't have as much age on it as the other building. Still gazing at the facility, it was quickly found that two guards, a couple of amethysts, were standing firm in front of the double door entrance to the facility.
"Listen everyone. I'll assist your approach to the facility, but once those guards are taken care of, I'll see myself away from the island as I promised the zoo I would return soon."
"Understood. Is there anything in specific we should know about the facility before we enter?" asked Garnet.
"The structure was originally used to hold any special captives until their conversion. Although there weren't many, any gem or organic Black would have trouble converting would be transferred here for special treatment, to allow the process to become much easier to perform. I don't believe I need to go into much detail about that as I know your all aware." As she said this, Holly noticed the troubled looks of discomfort and anger on everyone's face. Electing to move past this, she continued. "Although I was given extensive knowledge on the facility's workings, I wasn't given info on it contents. I don't suspect you'll find many captives here, if any at all, though I cannot say that for sure either. Since your takedown of Alpha, Black began moving most of his captives here for sometime. Although the facility wasn't used as much as Alpha, it still had plenty of storage as a backup in case of the other's failure or destruction."
"Any idea how many gems are kept here for security?" asked Connie.
"I'm afraid not. I can say for certain though that Black Diamond will most likely not be in attendance. Although he makes his visits to check on his gems and convert others, he spends his time usually at his facility, Delta. I am sorry to say I don't know the exact location of that structure as I usually had someone else warp us about while I focused on other tasks that would be entrusted to me. But, moving back to this facility, inside you should find the interior nearly identical to Alpha, aside from the entrance. There will be a pair of hallways on either side of a the large room in the main area, with Black's personal room located opposite of the entrance."
"Well, at least we're somewhat familiar with it already." Pearl noted. "What do you think the best approach would be?"
"I have a plan for that, thankfully." As she said this, she pointed to the sides of the structure. "I want you all to separate and flank the two gems. I'll walk up and distract them. Once I have the opportune moment set, I'll give you a signal of some kind. When I do, you lot rush in and poof them. I don't know if these, or any gems here for that matter, are enhanced, so avoiding a direct conflict would be best for you all."
"What kind of signal are we watching for? Would hate to have you get poofed because we couldn't figure it out." Amethyst noted.
"I'm not sure yet. Just watch for me to do some irregular movement of some kind. I'll throw my hands in the air or something, I don't care really. Just be ready for when I give it."
Coming to an agreeance on Holly's plan, the group divided. While Holly approached from the middle, the first group consisting of Pearl, Connie, Bismuth, and Lapis went to the left while the second group of Garnet, Jasper, and Amethyst went to the right. Once both groups were in position, Holly noted their locations as she still approached. Upon getting closer, the two guards noticed and moved towards the agate.
"Holly Blue...is that you?" asked the first guard.
"Of course it is Ice. Have you forgotten me already?"
"You just look different is all Holly. Where's your armor?" asked the second guard.
"Unfortunately Ash, I was recently poofed and had to be treated by our diamond again. I haven't had the chance to retrieve a new set of armor yet as I was given a task shortly after reforming."
"And what mission is that?" asked Ice.
As the guard asked this, Holly threw her arms in the air. "Poofing you two." As she said this, the two confused guards were suddenly ambushed from the left and right. Before either could even process what was happening, they were attacked and poofed by the group. With the two of them poofed and now bubbled by Garnet, everyone met back up.
"Now that that's done, I will be taking my leave. Good luck in there Crystal Gems."
As Holly began to leave, Pearl noted something before the group entered the facility.
"You might want to send those to the throne room Garnet. We don't want to risk more gems being taken back from us at the temple."
Giving a nod of agreeance, the fusion sent the two bubbles off to their new location. With this, the group began to open the doors and move inside. Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched from a distance however. A couple pearls, who had been observing the group since their arrival via warp, watched as the Crystal Gems cautiously entered Beta. With this, they began to send off a message.
-At Delta Facility-
"Good, thank you both. Return to us quickly. We'll be moving out here shortly." Earl responded as she sent a reply back to the two scouts. "My diamond, the Crystal Gems are in full attendance at Beta facility, just like you predicted."
"Excellent, we'll tend to Beta here shortly then. I want to make sure they have enough time to get into the facility without any chances of escape." Standing up from his seat, Black gave an order with a fierce determination. "With that now underway, we can officially say begin our plan. Earl, send out the mass alert. It's time everyone gathered for the final assault."
"Very well my diamond." Earl responded as she began to bring up her screen. "It'll be sent out here in a few moments."
-Meanwhile, within Delta Facility-
Steven was still roaming about the facility, lost in thought. He was anxious to see this final conflict come to an end, but also hoped that it was something that would never come as it's delay would mean continued safety for his friends and family. Although he currently wanted Black Diamond's plan to be successful, part of him wished it didn't have to involve getting his former allies involved. They were all content and happy with their lives before any this happened. The progress they all made in just a few years was still amazing to him and he disliked that it would all soon be changed, even if slightly. Regardless of his feelings though, he still knew where his priorities lie. With this, he continued passing the time by roaming the facility while he awaited for the call to move towards the final struggle of this war.
While he was still moving about, a gem in the distance caught his attention. Noticing this particular gem, who was sitting down and making notes on a screen, he ran over as he got her attention.
"Hey Peridot."
"Oh, hey Steven. What's up?" responded the technician, who now had a black gem atop her forehead.
"Not much. Was wondering about when I saw you. Figured I'd say hey."
"Well, I do appreciate the effort Steven. Especially since we haven't seen each other for sometime now."
"Yeah...I haven't seen you since...then."
"Yeah"
"So, what'chu working on" Steven asked.
"While we await our call to action, our diamond wanted me to become familiar with key structures and landmarks from Homeworld. He also wanted me to become well versed with how the armor works, both in and out. I'm just finalizing my findings here."
"Cool...at least he's got you doing something worthwhile."
The two sat in silence for a few moments as Peridot was still finishing her notes. While she was doing this however, Steven suddenly spoke up again.
"I'm sorry Peri."
Pausing for a moment from her work, the once green gem responded. "What did you say?!"
"I said I'm sorry Peridot."
"For what?"
"You know...getting you caught up in this mess we're in. I never wanted any of you to become involved...at least not until it was too late for everyone to disagree with Black's plan."
Now closing her screen, Peridot looked over to the hybrid. "Steven...while I appreciate your apology, you have nothing to be sorry for, recently or otherwise. You didn't cause my capture. If I were to blame anyone for that, it would be Red. It was her mission after all. Even if you had been directly involved in some way, I still wouldn't blame you. Besides, it was bound to happen eventually anyway. I will say though, I'm not too upset at being captured and converted by our diamond."
This gained a look of confusion and full on attention from Steven. Seeing this, Peridot continued. "After all, at least now we have someone familiar on the inside to be with you...to make sure no more necessary harm happens to you...either here by Black Diamond or out there by other forces. You still matter Steven...no matter who's allegiance we're with.
After a moment of silence, as Steven processed his friend's words, he chuckled and gave a soft smile. "Yeah...your right Peri...thank you."
After sometime, Steven spoke up once more. "I miss them...all of them."
"'sigh', yeah...me too. We'll see them again soon enough though. Regardless of how this all plays out, we'll still be together in the end at least."
As the two finished their talk, an alarm began going off, alerting the facility. Although alarms at Delta were rare, everyone within the walls of the structure knew what this particular alert meant.
"I guess it's time." said Steven.
"Seems so. C'mon, let's go. Can't keep our diamond waiting after all." Peridot responded as she began moving towards the main area of the facility.
'Yeah...guess it's time to end this...one way or another.' Steven though as he began moving out.
...
Nice to know some good came out of Peri's capture. Wonder what Black has in store for our Gems though? We'll found out soon enough I assure you all :).
Writing the conversation between Steven and Peridot was harder than I wanted it to be, but also necessary. I wanted to check up on our once green little genius gem, but I needed to attempt to keep their allegiances with Black while they had their heart to heart. I am glad I was able to get that out there though.
I want to give a big thanks to organicjacket. He/She wrote a side fic based off chapter 17 of this story. It's amazing and you should all go check it out. /works/30868253
I also want to thank everyone for their continued visits and support. I honestly didn't think this would get as far as it currently has when I first started this, but I'm glad to see it's been observed by so many people.
With that said, I hope the weekend went well for everyone. Here's to the upcoming week. Hope it's a good one for all. See everyone in chapter 29, where we continue the Beta Facility section of the story.
The Gathering Storm by Jeremy Soule