With Steven having lost control over himself, how will the gems contend with both him and Black Diamond?
...
Everyone watched in horror as Steven's monster form loomed over the battlefield. As he looked over the gems that were now beneath his figure, Steven let out another mighty roar. As he did, Black Diamond watched on with a look of determination.
"Yes my young diamond. Let your power consume you and everyone else on this miserable planet."
Hearing Black Diamond's outward monologue, Steven leaned down, bringing his head down in front of the eldest diamond.
"Yes Steven, good. Now then, I want you to destroy Homeworld and everything my sister has built. Unleash your power onto this planet. With everything gone, we'll rebuild the empire in my image."
With the order given to him, Steven stood up straight and let out another deafening roar as if to signal his understanding of the command. While Steven prepared to begin his destruction, the Gems looked on with a mixture of guilt, anger, and sorrow.
"Steven...no." said Connie. "How could you do this to him? What did he do to deserve any of this?"
"Oh please, don't act like this is all my fault. You all forced my hand when you poofed those that I held dear and forced me into a corner. It was clear that this was the only option then. After all, you all took away those I wanted to protect, so I did the same to you. You all continued making attempts to stop my takeover of Homeworld. Fine then, if I cannot have Homeworld or the gem empire as it is, then no one will!"
"And you think that just because we were trying to defend our way of life as we knew it that Steven deserved this. You say you know what he's gone through. Why would you want this for him?
"I'll admit young one, this wasn't one of my better options, but it was the one that held the best chances for success, and while I may not enjoy having to put the poor boy through more pain and sorrow, I also will not face failure again. If I am to fall today, then I make sure that your victory is bitter sweet. So long as Steven can actually complete this task I've given him, then it'll all be worth it in the end."
"No, this is all wrong Black Diamond." said Garnet. "If this is how you want to win, then we'll just have to take care of you before Steven can cause himself or anyone any harm."
While everyone continued to converse, Steven began moving towards the kindergarten wall on the edge of the battlefield. As he moved, he tail swung about.
"Please, do you all really think me so defenseless? I may not be as well versed in combat as the gems that were so loyal to me for all these years, but I'm not exactly a pushover either. Besides, you'd have to catch me to be able to take me down wouldn't you?"
With this, Black looked over to Steven and noted the position of his tail. With precise timing, Black increased his size about halfway, leaving himself standing at roughly the same height as Alexandrite, and latched himself onto Steven's tail. As he made sure to avoid the spikes on the boy, Black began to climb up the back of the monster while Steven continued making his way up and away from the battlefield.
Seeing Black's plan, Garnet began to take command once more. "Peridot, Lapis, after him, we'll follow behind the best we can, but you two have the best options here. Stay with him and take him down if you can."
"Got it" said Lapis as she summoned her water wings and flew off.
As Peridot summoned her metal lid and began floating on top it, she looked over to Connie. "Grab on. We could use the help, and I believe that you would have the best odds of all of us to bring Steven back to his senses."
"Right, let's go!" said Connie
As the three of them exited the battlefield to begin their chase, Garnet turned to the rest of the gems. "Jasper, Bismuth, I need you both to stay behind and help the diamonds finish this fight. We might hold the advantage in numbers, but we don't know how many enhanced gems are still in play."
"You got it Garnet. Go save him and take that upper crust down!"
"Like you need to tell me fusion. I don't expect you'll fail in bringing back my diamond."
With the two powerhouses now departed, Garnet was left with her two allies. "Pearl, Amethyst, let's go. We have a Steven to save".
With this, the trio fused into Alexandrite so that they could cover more ground as they began their attempts to catch up to the group.
Meanwhile, now a decent distance away from the battlefield, Steven was moving at an alarming speed with Black holding on to the giant figure. Slowly gaining on the duo however was Peridot, Connie, and Lapis.
"Where do you think they're going?" asked Lapis
"Black told Steven to destroy Homeworld and everything White has built and maintained, right. I believe it'd be safe to assume he's going towards the structures in Homeworld first."
"Then we need to stop them before Black makes Steven do something he'll regret." noted Connie
As the trio neared ever closer to the two diamonds, they saw Black hanging onto Steven's back with a hand.
"Let's see if we can't distract and separate the two. I'll try to slow Steven down, you two get Black Diamond away from him."
With a nod of confirmation, the duo began moving towards the eldest diamond while Lapis began moving towards Steven. Now flying in front of him, Lapis summoned the water she had and sent it off into Steven's eyes. Now feeling the discomfort from the attack, the giant figure slowed down to a near halt as he attempted to remedy himself from the distraction.
"Sorry Steven, but I need you to stay put while we get that bug off your back." said Lapis as she gathered up the water and began another strike.
With Steven slowed, Peridot flew herself and Connie to the eldest diamond. With her sword drawn, Connie attempted to slash the diamond. Unfortunately, Black noticed their approach and moved about so that the blade would miss its target. As the two made a second pass, Black attempted to swat them out of the air, but Peridot was able to avoid his strikes. With Lapis keeping Steven occupied and Peridot and Connie making similar runs with the same results on the diamond, they continued this pattern for sometime. After while, thanks to their efforts, Alexandrite managed to catch up to the group.
"Black Diamond!" screamed Alexandrite as she leapt and latched herself onto Black Diamond.
"Let's take this to the ground shall we?" the fusion said as she attempted to unhook the diamond from Steven. While she attempted to do this, Peridot flew Connie over to the hand that was holding Black up. With a swipe of her sword, Connie made contact with Black's hand, causing him to lose his grip and fall off. Now on the ground level, Black recovered and faced towards the fusion.
"You lot are persistent, I'll give you that. If I must poof you all before laying waste to this world, then so be it." After saying this, Black summoned a weapon of his own in the form of a large black dagger. As he moved towards Alexandrite, the fusion dodged the blade. As she did this, she summoned Sardonyx's war hammer. Using the opportunity they had been given, they struck Black, sending him flying a decent distance away. As he recovered, he found himself in front of Steven, who was still dealing with Lapis' distractions.
"Steven, stop messing around with that gem. Use your power to crush our foes."
Hearing the command, Steven managed to regain his composure long enough to unleash a powerful roar. The shockwave from the attack knocked back Lapis and Alexandrite, causing the latter of the duo to unfuse in the process.
"Good, now let's cont-" Black began to say before he was cut off as he was struck from behind by Connie's sword. As Black turned around, he noticed that the young warrior was still being flow around by Peridot, who had managed to stay out of the shockwaves impact when it was unleashed.
As the two began flying high in the sky in an attempt avoid an immediate counterattack from the diamond, Black focused his attention of the both of them.
"Annoying pests. Why don't you all just buzz off and let us be!" Black said as he threw the dagger towards the two while Steven watched with an unusually focused attention to the flying duo. As the weapon neared, Peridot found that she was unable to avoid the attack. Thankfully, upon the weapon striking the two, the handle of the dagger made contact rather than the blade, but this left Connie and Peridot both in a free fall. As the two fell, Peridot noted the position of both Connie and her metal trashcan lid. Using her powers, Peridot attempted to bring the lid to herself to slow her decent. While she did this, she also attempted to focus her powers on Connie's sword to slow her decent. As the two neared the ground at an alarming pace still, Peridot recovered herself and began to focus the remainder of her abilities on Connie's sword. As the young woman neared the ground, the speed of her decent began slowing at a considerable rate, but it was too late for it to prevent an impact. As she neared the ground, Connie hit the ground, leaving a sickening thud to sound out in the air.
"Connie!", Peridot said as she flew over to the girl. Now next to her, she noted the lack of any kind of movement from the girl. She also soon found that the back of her head was becoming course with a red liquid.
"No...no no no!" Peridot cried out. "Please Connie, say something. Do something!"
As the green gem continued to attempt to bring about some kind of life or activity from the girl, Black and Steven stared at the duo.
"Well, I suppose that takes care of those two. One less problem to deal with it seems." Black said in relief. Although he may have showed relief at the injury of the young human, Steven, who had paid close attention to the two since their final strike, made no noise as he continued staring at the two with wide eyes. As he saw Connie's motionless body, he suddenly let out a thundering roar that shook the land.
"Steven?" said a surprised Black. Before he could say or do anything else however, he found Steven's tail striking him, sending him flying off into the distance. As he landed and attempted to recover, he soon found that the giant monster was pursuing him and was nearly already on top of him. Before he could summon another dagger or attempt to move away, Steven brought down his claws onto the elder diamond. After a few fierce swipes, Steven picked Black up and threw him off into the distance.
Seeing that the diamond was no longer in the immediate area, Steven turned towards Connie and Peridot and began slowly moving towards the two. As he did, he form began to glow. With each step that he took, he form began to change once more. The spikes began to recede back into him. His claws turned back into human hands. As all the monster features began to disappear the closer he got to the duo, he was soon the same human shape and figure that everyone knew him as. With tears streaming down his face, Steven kneeled down next to Peridot and the motionless Connie.
"I'm sorry Steven...there was nothing more I could do." said Peridot in a fit of sorrow.
As he heard the green gem, he brought his hand under Connie's head, lifting it up slightly in the process. As he looked at her figure, he noticed that her breathing had slowed, but was still present, even if ever so slightly.
"Connie" said Steven. "This is my fault. I'm so sorry."
With this, he licked his palm and brought the healing liquid to the back of her head where the wound was. Once he noted that the wound was healed and no more fresh blood was present, he quickly looked about, making sure that no other major injuries were present. Once he found none, he sighed in a slight relief as his body began to slump over. As the boy began losing consciousness, he continued holding on to his friend. With his final thought before passing out, all he could do was hope that he had managed to heal his friend in time and that this nightmare would be over.
...
"Oh my, do you think she's dead" -Loki, Thor: The Dark World-Let's hope not. Be a shame for Steven to have to face that after everything else that's happened...but hey silver lining, Steven ain't monster no more.
And here we see yet another point that I have been planning for quite sometime...nearly as long as the whole Steeb becoming monster due to Black's stubbornness to admit defeat. Regardless though, Steven's human again, Connie's down, and Black Diamond is...gone? Down?...Maybe even poofed?! Who can say for sure? More on each of those and what's to follow after next time.
Thank you all for the support. We are nearing the end of this part of the fic. As I have mentioned before, I do have plans to continue this past this storyline as I am attempting to tie it back into canon Future (aside from the time difference we've already experienced). More on that though once we get to it. Hope the day is going well enough for everyone. Hope to see all you lovely peeps again next time in 40.
You're a Monster by Aivi & Surasshu (SU Season 3)