CHAPTER TWO
It wasn't the most restful sleep Steven had ever experienced. Several times in the night, raised voices brought him almost to the edge of consciousness, but before he could fully wake up, they got quieter again and he drifted off again, his sleep fractured but not fully broken. It took him a long time to properly wake up in the morning, and when he did, he was almost tempted to just roll over and go straight back to sleep for another eight hours. But then he heard Lapis's voice below and belatedly remembered the events of the night before.
"Good morning, Sunshine," Garnet greeted him when he blearily stood up and began making his way towards the stairs.
"Hey." He stretched and rubbed his eyes, hoping that would make him feel a bit more alert. It didn't. "When did you guys get back?"
"Couple of hours ago," Amethyst said. "Lapis called us and said the barn fell down, but we thought we'd wait for you before we go and check it out."
"The phones are working then?" He glanced out of the window, finally noting the beautiful, sunshiney sky outside. "How did the mission go?"
"There's still a lot of clean-up to do," Pearl said, looking rather enthusiastic at the notion. "But we did manage to locate the gem, so things shouldn't get any worse while we deal with this emergency."
Lapis rolled her eyes. "So sorry the destruction of our home has interfered with your schedule," she muttered.
Pearl wisely ignored her. "Why don't you get dressed, and I'll fix you some breakfast?"
"Sure." He got halfway down the stairs before he realized he didn't have a change of clothes with him. With a groan of annoyance, he spun around, grabbed his old clothes off the floor and clean ones out of the dresser, and headed into the bathroom, where he immediately filled the sink with cold water and plunged his face into it. Finally awake, he quickly changed and tossed his dirty clothes and pyjamas into the hamper on top of Peridot's damp clothes, and stepped outside again. Pearl had poured him a bowl of cereal, and hyper-aware that everyone was watching him, waiting to leave, he wolfed it down in double-quick time. "Done!" he announced, pushing the bowl away.
"Right!" Amethyst clapped her hands together. "Let's go check out the damage."
Pearl nodded, and added brightly, "I'm sure it'll all look a lot less worse in daylight."
xxx
As soon as they warped onto the hill overlooking the barn, they knew at once that Pearl was wrong. Amethyst whistled slowly. "Wow. You sure it blew down? It looks like it was blown up!"
"Yes, I'm very sure," Peridot said dryly. "I was there."
"Making something explody?" Amethyst persisted.
Peridot puffed up in outrage. "No! I was writing fan- writing. Just writing. Nothing in particular."
Garnet perked up in interest. "The one where they're trapped in a blizzard and there's only one bed or the one where they're handcuffed together?"
"Handcuffs." Peridot looked over at the wreckage of the barn and deflated slightly. "But I left my tablet behind yesterday, so I expect it's been destroyed. I'll have to start all over again."
"It might not be that bad up close," Pearl said a little hopefully. "Yes, I admit it looks bad now," she continued as Lapis made a rude noise behind her. "But it's possible that damage is just superficial."
"Yes, I'm sure it's just superficially collapsed," Lapis said snarkily, but she obediently followed the group down the hill and over to the barn. Then they all stopped and stood in silence for several seconds.
"All right, I admit it," Pearl finally spoke. "It's bad."
"Yeah, I don't think we can fix this," Garnet added, bending down to examine a piece of shattered wood. "It needs to be rebuilt. I'll have to call Greg and get him to call Andy."
"So… plan B?" Amethyst suggested.
Steven looked at her with interest. "We have a plan B?"
Garnet nodded. "First, we rescue as many of Peridot and Lapis's possessions as possible." She tossed the broken wood aside and picked up another piece. "Then we give them their own rooms in the Temple."
Steven's eyes widened. "You can do that!?"
"Well yeah," Amethyst said cheerfully. "I mean, you didn't think it originally had room for me, did you?" She shapeshifted her hands a bit bigger and began tossing broken wood onto Garnet's small pile of debris.
"I hadn't really thought about," he admitted. But now it had been pointed out to him, he had to admit, it was fairly obvious that the Temple was a post-war structure, built by the Crystal Gems themselves, so of course they'd be able to add new rooms if they wanted to. "Why didn't we do that ages ago?" he asked without thinking. Then he immediately wished he hadn't. Nobody had outright said the words 'Lapis and Peridot still aren't really Crystal Gems,' but despite all his attempts to pretend everything was fine, it had been four years and the two groups still tended to stay separate unless Steven himself made the effort to bring them together.
"Well…" Pearl began, a little self-consciously. "There were a number of reasons, obviously in the beginning, we thought Lapis - and Peridot, of course - would prefer their own space, away from us, but also because forming new rooms is a procedure that involves all of the current Temple inhabitants combining their power…"
"And you weren't sure if I'd be able to do it?" Steven finished.
"We never doubted you," Garnet quickly butted in. "But we didn't know if your human side would affect the process."
"OK." Steven picked up the remains of the barn door and then paused. "Wait. If it doesn't work, do we have a plan C?"
"We have a plan C," Garnet said, but she didn't bother explaining what plan C was, so after a few seconds, Steven got back to work.
Meanwhile, Lapis and Peridot had mostly ignored the conversation and were working on opposite sides of the barn, trying to find what was left of their rooms. Lapis had used the lake to form a large hand that she was using to stir through the rubble, while Peridot valiantly struggled to move a beam of wood. Finally Pearl and Steven took pity on her and came to her aid. But as she stepped back to toss the beam aside, Pearl heard something crack under her foot and peered down to see what it was. "Oh, Peridot. I think I've, ah, found your screen."
Peridot's eyes lit up with hope, but her face fell as Pearl handed it over and she saw that the screen was completely smashed in. "I knew it was illogical, but part of me had hoped it would be OK," she murmured.
"I'm sure Greg would be happy to buy you another one," Pearl tried to reassure her. "After all, that one was several years old, and human technology changes so rapidly."
Peridot shook her head. "I can replace it, that's not a problem. It's just…" She trailed off. How could she explain? She didn't want another tablet, she wanted the one Steven and Greg had given her, because Steven had known she missed her technology. "I liked this one."
Steven held out a hand. "Let me see it."
Peridot handed it over and watched with interest as he licked his palm and pressed it against the screen, careful to avoid pressing too hard upon the broken glass. At once, the tablet shimmered and began to repair itself. The casing unbuckled and the glass knitted back together and less than two seconds later, it looked even better than it had the day she'd first received it. "Wow, thanks!" she exclaimed in delight.
"Wait, you can fix inanimate objects too?" Lapis let half the wall crash back to the ground and flew over to join them. "I thought it only worked on gems and people!" Her eyes lit up greedily. "Does that mean you could fix the barn?"
He looked around for a moment, considering it, and then shook his head apologetically. "Well… not really," he admitted. "There's just too much damage, I don't have anywhere near enough spit to lick the barn back together. Sorry."
"What about Rose Quartz's fountain?" Peridot suggested at once.
"That only works on gems," Garnet spoke up before Steven could respond. "Unlike Steven's powers, it doesn't even work on humans."
"And isn't the barn made of wood? As in, trees?" Amethyst added, holding up a splintered board in example. "I mean, sure, he might fix the barn, or on the other hand, he might make a bunch of tree-Stevens instead."
"Sorry," Steven said again as Lapis scowled and picked up the wall again with slightly more noise than was really necessary.
She looked at his forlorn face and sighed. "It's OK, Steven." She forced a tiny smile onto her face. "I know you're helping as much as you can. I'm just gonna miss this place, that's all."
Peridot nodded in agreement. "I'll miss it too. But I must admit, now that I've had some time to think about it, the thought of living in the Temple is appealing. We'll be able to contribute more to the team. And," she added, seeing that Lapis looked unconvinced, "we'll see more of Steven."
"That's true," Lapis admitted, and her smile looked a little more genuine.
They all got back to work until finally, they'd finished. In the place of the ruined barn stood four neat piles; one containing Lapis's books and art supplies, a rather larger one containing Peridot's tools, DVD's and collection of clothes, some shared belongings they hadn't yet decided how to split, and the remaining debris and rubbish. Amethyst then helpfully shapeshifted into a helicopter and flew the two barnmates belongings back to the beach house while everybody else warped back.
"Right," Garnet declared, and clapped her hands together for emphasis. "Are we ready to do this?"
"Yes," Pearl, Steven, Peridot and Lapis answered in unison.
"No," said Amethyst at the exact same time. "What? Just give me a minute to rest," she complained as everyone glared at her. "Peridot's got like, six hundred pairs of shoes. They were heavy!"
"You've got thirty seconds," Garnet compromised.
Everybody watched as Amethyst spent those thirty seconds stretching her limbs out across the room, until she snapped back to her default form and nodded. "I'm ready. Let's do this."
"Question." Steven raised his hand. "How exactly do we do this?"
"I'm glad you asked that." Pearl stepped forward and began projecting a hologram to demonstrate the process. "The four of us - that's you, me, Amethyst and Garnet - will all activate our gems at once, which will open a door directly to the chamber containing the Crystal Heart. Once there, we will all stand in a circle around the Heart, clear our minds and mentally request new access gems for Peridot and Lapis as we project the light from our gems upon the Heart." She smiled proudly down at her hologram, which now showed six figures standing around the Crystal Heart, connected by beams of light.
"Do we get to design our rooms ourselves?" Lapis asked cautiously.
"Oh yeah," Amethyst reassured her. "You don't think Pearl had any input on my room now, do ya?"
Pearl dismissing her hologram and folded her arms. "It'd be far more clean and organized if I did," she grumbled.
"That sounds pretty easy," Steven quickly interjected before they could start properly arguing. "I think I can manage that, let's go."
Garnet stepped forward and the gems on the door belonging to Ruby and Sapphire lit up. Following her lead, Pearl and Amethyst abandoned their fledgling squabble and stepped forward to activate their door gems as well. Then, taking a deep breath, Steven marched forward and concentrated on opening the door to his mother's old room. All five gems glowed brightly, and the door vanished, allowing them to step forward into the literal heart of the Temple.
"Everybody spread out," Garnet commanded. "Form a circle around the Heart. Lapis, Peridot, you too. Make sure your gems are facing it." She watched with satisfaction as the other gems formed a circle. It was slightly uneven, mostly due to the fact that Lapis was forced to turn her back to everyone, but it would do. "Now, light up your gems, and clear your minds."
Steven lifted the hem of his t-shirt and watched the pink beam of light strike the crystalline surface of the Heart. Instead of bouncing off of it, he watched in fascination as the magical gem structure above them absorbed the light of everybody's gems and began to glow softly.
"Steven, concentrate!" Garnet called out.
He blinked slightly, breaking out of his trance, and closed his eyes as he tried to clear his mind. Unfortunately, all that happened was that every time he banished a thought, a new one popped up to replace it. Concentrate, Steven! he told himself sternly. Lapis and Peridot need your help! Images of the broken barn flitted across his mind. He wished he could have done more to help, but he really couldn't have licked it all back together. He hadn't even had enough spit to heal Peridot properly. Then in an instant, he recalled how Connie's eyesight had been healed when she'd shared his drink. Of course! I should've got her to ingest my spit! But before he could even finish asking himself how he'd do that without a carton of juice as a go-between, his brain had already helpfully displayed the answer. In glorious HD Technicolor and Dolby stereo surround sound, he imagined Peridot's lips upon his, her tongue in his mouth, her hands on his skin- No! What!? No! Bad Steven! Not now! Concentrate!
It was no good. The scene was burned onto the back of his eyelids now. His eyes snapped open and he blinked a few times, desperately trying to rid himself of the distracting mental image, but it was no good. As soon as he tried closing his eyes again, it was waiting for him. He saw her eyes flutter closed, felt her breath against his lips, heard her sigh… for goodness sake, snap out of it! he screamed internally. What is wrong with you!? Think of something else! Anything else! He screwed his eyes up tighter and tried to think of a song. Focusing on something else was bound to chase this particular thought out of his head, right? Loving you, is easy 'cause you're beautiful, he sang silently. Doo-doo-doodah-dee-dooo… And then his brain filled up with the sound of velociraptor screeching.
"Is anything happening?" Lapis's voice cut through the silence and made him jump. "Because I can't actually see anything."
Garnet shook her head. "No, it's not working." She dropped her hands and cricked her neck. "Let's take a quick break and try again."
As the other gems all relaxed and stretched, Steven took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Then when Garnet signaled for them to begin the process again, he was ready. He closed his eyes, breathed slowly and steadily and imagined the beach. The sun shining down… waves crashing gently upon the sand… the sand guardian, guardian of the sand… Poseidon quivers before him!
He growled under his breath and shook his head in frustration. What was wrong with his brain today? Why did it insist on filling up with complete nonsense at the worst possible moment? "Rrrrgh!"
"Steven? Are you all right?"
He snapped his eyes open again and blushed as Pearl stared at him in concern. "Sorry! I'm just…" He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as the other gems stared at him. "Having a little trouble clearing my mind. But I'll manage it this time, I promise!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he was doomed. There was no way he could clear his mind now, it had turned against him. Random song lyrics flooded into his head, accompanied by old vines he hadn't seen in years. He gritted his teeth and gave the Crying Breakfast Friends theme song a mental shove, but it was immediately replaced with horrible, mortifying images of that time he'd taken over Lars' body- "Gah! I'm sorry! I can't do it!" he wailed.
"Steven, it's fine," Peridot began, a look of concern on her face.
"Yeah, don't sweat it," Amethyst butted in. "We'll just keep trying, no big."
"No, you don't understand!" He cradled his head in his hands. "I just… can't. My brain keeps filling up with stupid stuff and I can't stop it!"
"It's OK, really," Garnet said soothingly. She stepped forward and pulled him into a hug. "I expected something like this to happen. It's not that I think you can't do this," she hastily added as he pulled back in confusion, "I know you can do this. But I also know that if you keep trying to force your mind clear now, it's going to fight back harder against you and you'll be dragged into a losing battle against your thoughts. We'll take a break," she said to the wider group. "Let Steven eat, and then we'll try again."
"Actually…" Lapis stepped forward and shuffled her feet a little nervously. "I've been thinking it over, and…" She took a deep breath. "I wanna move onto plan C. Or at least, my part of plan C," she clarified as everyone turned to look at her.
"What's plan C?" Steven asked warily.
"Well…" Pearl began slowly. "We were rather hoping we wouldn't need to use that one, as it involves a small amount of disruption to your own living arrangements."
Steven's eyes widened slightly. "That sounds ominous."
Amethyst snorted. "Pearl's making a big deal out of nothing." She stepped forward and nudged Pearl aside. "Basically, plan C is just that you move into Rose's room, and Peridot gets the beach house. That's all."
It didn't escape Steven's attention that Lapis's name had not been mentioned in the plan, and he turned to look at her. "What did you mean when you said 'your part of the plan'?" he asked.
Lapis crossed her arms and looked away guiltily. "I'm… not staying."