The main battles near their end...but what does that mean for Steven and Black Diamond?

...

While many of the conflicts had begun to reach their end as the battle for Homeworld began taking a turn, one battle in particular was still in continuation. Still located near the edge of the battlefield was Amethyst and Jasper, who had still been contending with Red. Using their strategy of support and wear down, the two found that their plan was making progress as Red began losing power and had also began making more predictable moves on the two. As Red threw another strike, Amethyst had missed her attempt to redirect the ruby's strike, leaving Jasper in the way of the blow. However, once the strike had landed, Jasper barely flinched, with the only indication that the strike had any power behind it being that it knocked Jasper back a few feet. Seeing that her blow no longer affected the orange warrior as it had before, Red took several steps back and was now a few meters away from the two, who looked as if they were still ready to make another bout, even though they both showed clear signs of wear and tear of their own from the struggle. Seeing the two's current energy and progress, all Red could respond with was a chuckle.

"Heh...guess you two got me beat. I didn't think it'd be possible, but here we are. I'll give credit to you both for your efforts, pathetic as they were. Trusting each other might be your way, but even now, I still prefer my method of might makes right."

"You know, I used to think I was the biggest gem around too, aside from the diamonds. Once the Crystal Gems took me down on a few occasions though, I saw how big this universe really is. You might have had us beat in raw power, but there's always a greater pool of strength. Even if it isn't in muscle, rage, or power Red, you'll find that there's always another way to be stronger." Jasper said.

"Huh...guess you have a point. So then...let's end this. Just because I admit my defeat doesn't mean I'm done fighting. If what you say is true, then I'll just have to find out how to overpower the strength you both have."

Suddenly, Red charged the two once more. As she threw a strike, Jasper dodged to the side and brought Red to the ground, ending the fight. As she kept her foot on the gem to make sure she didn't escape, Amethyst came up to Jasper.

"Hey...good job..out there." she said while clearly exhausted.

"You alright Runt?"

"Yea...totally...I'm go-" was all Amethyst got out before she poofed, leaving her gemstone to fall to the ground.

"Guess you took more hits than you could handle...don't worry Amethyst, I'll keep an eye on you for a bit." As she grabbed the gemstone, Jasper also picked up Red, who still had a physical form, but didn't have the energy to put up a meaningful struggle anymore. Now carrying both of them, Jasper began moving out.

While other minor battles continued on the field, Black Diamond watched the war continue to play out from a distance. As he did however, he soon found that a gem had fallen and landed nearby. As the dust settled, he looked over to see that Earl had been sent near his location, with Pearl and Spinel arriving shortly after. With the duo now standing over top the fallen gem, Earl kept her attention to her two foes.

"Earl!" said Black as he showed a clear sign of concern for the gem. As the pearl heard her name, she looked to see Black Diamond standing only meters away.

"My...diamond...sorry" Earl said as she looked to Black with eyes full of sorrow and guilt. Shortly after, Pearl brought her spear down, poofing the gem in the process.

"Earl...no." As he watched Earl poof, he stood, staring at the spot where the loyal gem had been only moments prior. "How dare you poof her!" Black said as he turned to face towards the duo. Before anything else could be done though, Black found himself being interrupted.

"Black Diamond." said Jasper as she walked up with Red in hand and Amethyst, who had reformed shortly after her poofing, following behind. As the orange gem neared the diamond, she threw Red to the ground. Landing face first, the ruby looked up to see Black nearby.

"Sorry...BD..." was all that was said before Jasper brought her foot down on the form of the gem, poofing her.

"Heh, well we won't be seeing that annoying little one anymore. Speaking of annoying, your next Black Diamond" taunted Jasper.

"Red...not you too." Black said in disbelief as he watched Amethyst bubble and send away the gem. Now looking over at Pearl, who he noticed had done the same with Earl, Black found himself surrounded.

"It's over Black Diamond. You've lost this war." said Pearl.

"Not yet I haven't." he responded. As he did so, he reached for his communicator. "Peridots, send any and all available gems to me." The only thing that was heard from his end however was silence. "Peridots...any of you, respond now."

"Yeah, I don't think you'll be hearing from them anytime soon." Looking up, everyone saw Lapis, Peridot, and Connie arrive. "Hello again my diamond, you clod. Due to recent events, I'm afraid the squad of peridots has been disbanded and will be unavailable until further notice." said a smug Peridot, whos green gem shined the bright familiar shade it normally had.

Before Black could respond to the insulting comment, something in the distance caught his attention. As he looked off, he noticed that Steven was still fighting against Bismuth and Garnet. Seeing this, Black reached for his communicator once more. "Steven, I need you on my location NOW"

As he continued looking over, he saw Steven receive the message and look over towards the diamond. Shortly after, Steven left the battle and was at Black Diamond's side seconds later. Not too long after, Garnet and Bismuth had joined the group surrounding the two diamonds.

"You two alright?" asked Pearl

"Yeah we're good. Little meatball put up a good fight, but we were able to hold our own well enough." said Bismuth.

With Steven, the only special gem left to assist him, Black considered his options as the Crystal Gems had the two completely surrounded, leaving any chance for a quick escape seemingly impossible. After a few moments, he found that one option stuck out more in terms of success than any others he could think of.

"Steven, make a barrier between us and them and don't drop it until I say otherwise. I don't want them to reach us as I need a moment."

As ordered, Steven brought up a wide barrier between the Crystal Gems, Black and himself.

"Alright, it's done Black. Now what shoul-". Before Steven could say anymore, Black, who had shapeshifted himself to the height the present gems were most familiar with, had struck Steven on the head. Now standing a few feet away from the diamond, Steven looked on in a confused state as he heard the cries from his friends from the other side of the barrier.

"B-Black, w-why did you do that?" he said as he put a hand on the area where Black Diamond had made contact.

After a silence that felt like an eternity until it was broke, Black spoke up. "Steven, I wish to tell you something. When I first discovered you years ago, I didn't think much of you at the time. You were a regular child at first, unable to do many basic tasks let alone any of the ones that I would have needed to be done. Though after awhile, I watched as your powers began to manifest and you gained a good deal of control over them. In these recent couple years however, the powers you showed off made me gain an interest in you. As I saw what you were capable of, especially with the most recent events leading up to your recruitment, I believed that you would be of great assistance to my cause. And for awhile, you were. You managed to increase our numbers in record time, more than any other gem had been able to do in the eons of planning and building. However, something I have noticed for sometime now...you've been avoiding the recurring problem to our cause."

"What are you saying? What do you mean?"

"Oh don't play stupid with me child. Time and time again you've been given the opportunity to see to the defeat of our foes, but your hesitation and in some cases, out right avoidance to face the Crystal Gems has caused nearly every issue we've recently encountered."

Seeing the confused look on the young diamond's face, Black continued as he showed a level of anger that Steven hadn't seen before. "As I said, I've noticed that you've been avoiding confrontation with our enemy. I've taken note of each of your missions, particularly the ones following up from your trip to the moon base sometime ago. Think about it Steven. You were sent to the moon base to capture the peridots for our cause. During your mission there, the Gems had found you, but you let them be. You didn't try to take them out, even though you knew they would be an issue and that we were still recruiting useful gems. That was merely the beginning of it all. Next, you were captured by the Gems when I had sent you there after the fall of Alpha. Though I can't blame you for your capture as I was witted into believing that fusion Stevonnie would be of us to me, you didn't try to assist Red in her efforts to free you. Once you were free though, you ran into the fusion and the bismuth not too long after during your mission to take the bubbles from their temple. Even then, you retreated without even making an attempt at taking either of them out. But even after all of that, I was willing to correct these errors, set a trap for them and forgive your sins as we were still on track with our plans at the time. Although that trap did stall them, they still showed up prematurely though and when they did, I told you to go and poof them. So what do I find you doing since I gave you that order? You sparring with Bismuth and Garnet while our forces are taken out by the other members of the Crystal Gems."

"Black, I was working them down. Those two are the toughest of the Gems, aside from me and maybe Jasper. They would have been poofed in the end though."

"See now my young diamond, I believe you are now making excuses. That's inaccurate and you know that as well as I do. We've all seen your full power, the energy and strength you displayed during your loss of control at the beach house. Though it wasn't in your complete control at the time, you still had the power to knock the diamonds around, defeat anyone who tried to challenge you...heck even the Cluster wasn't able to keep you contained for long. You had all the necessary tools to take down everyone on this battlefield at your leisure. Even without your monster powers, you would still be able to take any gem on the field down with the newfound mastery of your abilities to which I generously helped you gain. I'm sorry Steven, but with all the abilities you have even now, I'm finding it rather difficult to believe your claim. What I do know however is that because of your actions up until now, we've been forced into a corner, one that I'm not sure we'll be able to successfully recover from. Because of you, my plan to take out White and bring success to the gem empire and peace to this universe have been jeopardized and that is something I will not tolerate."

"Please Black, I can still make this right, I can-" "No Steven, you can't...not anymore." interrupted Black. "Although I believed you to be the solution to my eons old issues, I see now that I was wrong. I see now that your nothing more than a weak...

Steven's heart pounded at an accelerated pace.

...useless...

Everything around seemed to slow

...unhelpful...

the words cut deep as Steven was forced to listen

...monster".

As Black finished, the final words that he said rang in the hybrid's head. As if on loop, Steven heard the words again and again.

'I'm..i'm weak?! Useless? Unhelpful? I'm...I'm a...a monster!?

As Steven thought this and heard the words repeating still, he began to clutch his head. Shortly after, he found he was unable to stand anymore, leaving himself crouched on the ground in front of Black Diamond. A large whirring could be heard from his gem as he began to feel a similar feeling, one he knew from only a few months ago. As the seconds went by, Steven began to feel the changes coming as his size began to increase. In addition to his change of mass, multiple sets of familiar spikes began to emerge as well.

"Guys, everyone...sorry. Please all of you...get away from me right noAGGGHHHHH", Steven said as his last intelligible words turned to nothing more than roars.

Soon after, his change had neared completion as a familiar giant figure stood in the same area as the young diamond had just moments prior. With the form being the same as before, with the only differences being the armor had grew with him and his still black gem, Steven stood towering above the gems on the battlefield. With the change complete, Steven continued roaring, giving out all the signs that for the second time within a year, he had become a monster.

...

So yeah, since BD decided to just say to heck with all that honor crap and what now, I can now say that monster Steeb is back. REJECT HOOMAN, EMBRACE MONSTE! Seriously though, this scene was amazing for me. Much like Connie's plan way back when, had this sucker planned out for quite awhile and I'm glad it turned out as well as it did (at least on my end...hope you all think the same). Now, we'll move into more on Monster Steven next time and what that means for Homeworld.

Thanks e'er one for stopping by yet again. Happy Monday! Thank God It's Monday as some say (I don't get the buzz, day's still my least fav, but I suppose I'll still take it...could always be worse after all). Hope to see everyone once more in chapter 39 here in the near future.

When Honor Dies by Miracle of Sound