Chapter Twelve
I was slammed hard into an examining table, my head still swimming. My vision was blurry and I felt myself being roughly flipped onto my front, wrists and ankles being strapped down hard.
"APPLICATION OF ANESTHESIA; ERROR. ANESTHETIC SUPPLY ZERO."
I uttered a silent prayer that it would mean that whatever was about to happen would be postponed.
"APPLYING ADDITIONAL RESTRAINTS. PROCEEDING WITH CONVERSION."
Oh fuck me.
Further bands swiftly wrapped around me- my waist, locking down my neck and head as well, and the rest of my limbs. I could barely move at all, as I was locked down.
"RECOMMENDATION. DO NOT MOVE, ORGANIC. MOVEMENT COULD INCREASE PAIN INFLICTED BY THE PROCEDURE."
Fuck fuck fuck fuck, I was hyperventilating a little, struggling to breathe normally. What the fuck could I do?!
"BEGIN CONVERSION."
I felt something jab violently into my back and managed to find the strength to let out a scream.
I felt like I was on fire . My vision, already swimming and blurring in pain as something began violently forcing itself against my back. Pain was shooting through every inch of me. It felt like something was drilling into my spine.
" YING!" My eyes rolled up slightly. I could see hands shoved against the glass, and a panicked face. Spinel.
I felt another violent rush of pain, bile rising in my throat. I could see a splatter of blood flecked against the glass. My vision began swimming again, and then, mercifully, I blacked out.
Peridot frowned. She had lost contact with the others. The defense robonoids had been easily dispatched though, due to her own ferrokinetic powers and their relatively advanced age. Even with repair bots everywhere, they had become a bit more frail over time. For now, she decided it'd be safer to stay put. She turned towards the screens, and tapped a few buttons, finally unlocking the various data files.
She browsed back, only skimming titles as she went, slowing as she reached the oldest.
Organic Conversion Research Center .
"What the heck does that mean?" She grumbled, opening the file, eyes flitting along the text.
Slowly, her confused expression began to morph into one of shock, and then one of horror. Peridot reached the end of the file, and bolted up. "Ohmygosh!" She blurted, scrabbling out of the chair, tumbling towards the floor. She rapidly leapt to her feet, sprinting full speed towards the others, eyes wide.
Peridot skidded as she came to the T-junction, turning. No time. Her comms weren't working right, and she had to tell the others fast. Any of them.
She sprinted into the room. Bismuth and Spinel were dismantling the last of the defenders, which was suspended helplessly by Lapis in a water bubble.
"Guysguysguys!" Peridot wailed, eyes wide in panic. "We need to get Connie and Ying out of here!"
"What?!" Spinel jolted, alarmed.
"This place- It might still be active! And if it is, it might seriously hurt them!" She babbled, eyes wild, gripping onto Lapis's arm, the taller gem quickly scooping her up to steady her, Peridot's arm flailing. "There's some kind of autopilot and if it turns on, then it might do experiments to them! It's made to do research on humans! "
The gems exchanged a wild-eyed look. Ying had just fled to escape danger. Spinel took off full-tilt towards where Ying had gone. Lapis quickly set Peridot down, wings extending.
"I'll get the rest!" She shouted over her shoulder.
The gems all burst into the room, and saw the terrifying operating theater. Spinel was already pressed to the glass, eyes wide in panic. Ying was conscious, but barely. A long mechanical arm, tipped with a bladed drill, was already tearing apart her flesh.
"Oh slag ." Bismuth's voice rang out. She was wheeling an arm back to smash the glass.
" Waitwaitwaitwait! " Peridot shrieked. "If you just smash things it might kill her, are you crazy?! "
Connie was there too, eyes huge. "Peridot's right! That machine, it's, it's, doing surgery on her! "
" Do something then!" Spinel thundered, pounding a fist against the glass. " MAKE IT STOP!"
"COMMAND REJECTED." Alloy's deep voice rumbled. "NON-AUTHORIZED GEM IN FACILITY. PROCEDURE: EXPUNGE. ERROR. SECURITY OFFLINE."
"Useless!" Peridot screeched, yanking at her hair as she searched the consoles. "There must be some kind of shut-off! Find it!"
The gems scattered, desperately seeking for some kind of emergency shutdown. Ying was swaying in and out of consciousness, her expression going from panic to barely-focused weak desperation.
"Please please please let there be something…" Spinel whispered, desperately clawing through the room, searching for anything. Peridot was zipping from terminal to terminal. Suddenly, a loud ding echoed, and the whirr of the machines inside the surgery went silent.
"PROCEDURE COMPLETE." The voice rumbled. "SUBJECT STATUS: STABLE. PLEASE REMOVE SUBJECT AND ALLOW UP TO THIRTY MINUTES FOR CLEANUP."
There was a hiss, and the room opened up. Spinel charged in, eyes wild.
Ying was unconscious, but breathing weakly. Connie dashed up, taking her limp wrist, feeling for a pulse, before shifting to her face, fingers gently under her mouth. She exhaled, stark relief on her face.
"She's alive." She announced, and Spinel shifted to examine her back.
Her eyes widened. Ying's flesh had been mangled badly by the drill, and she could even see bits of white bone. Connie looked ready to puke at the sight, but then froze in shock as the wound began sealing itself. It was closing.
"We need to get out of here." Connie muttered, warily looking at the machines, in case it decided to start up and target her next. "We can take Ying to a hospital, they might be able to help her."
Spinel nodded, gently cradling Ying in her arms. Connie and her headed out of the surgery room to witness something odd. Peridot was crawling around the room on all fours, peeking under consoles and at all sorts of machines. .
"I'm going to find answers." She muttered as she crept up towards the strange cylinders near the back of the room. "This place must have something that tells us exactly what that thing was doing… Ah-ha!"
Peridot bounced excitedly. "There's gems in here. Oh wait. They might be corrupt, right? Uh, I'll uh… Wait until you guys go before I open it." She gestured at Spinel and Connie, who nodded and rushed out; Ying needed medical care of some kind, surely.
Peridot waited a bit, then nodded at the other gems, who readied their weapons, slamming a fist down on a button.
The cylinders dropped open, but only two gems fell from them. A green one and a grey one.
They shimmered, shining as they began to form.
Instead of the hunched, bestial forms of corruptions, emerged two very groggy but otherwise unharmed gems.
One was clearly another Peridot. Taller and lankier, closer to Pearl in size. Telltale signs of an Era-One Peridot.
The other was a grey gem. She was waifish and about a head shorter than her companion, with a crescent-shaped stone set in her chest. She shifted, slender legs tapering oddly, and then began to hover slightly, floating a few inches off the ground.
"Gracious… We're back." She hummed, blinking her large eyes owlishly behind her bangs, before freezing. "What…? Eek!" She immediately jumped, ducking behind the Peridot, creating a strange grey field in front of them both. "R-rebels! Don't hurt her- us! Don't hurt us!"
The Peridot, despite the grey Gem creating the barrier, raised her arms defensively as she stood partially in front of her.
"D-don't worry Selenite! I can fight them!" She didn't sound very sure. Bismuth gave a chuckle, lowering her weapons.
"Hey, hey. Easy. Things are uh, a little different. You've been gone a while."
"Obviously." The Peridot eyed the group warily. "How long has it been, then? Last we heard there was a call to evacuate, so me and Selenite hid ourselves in those pods to keep our gems safe..."
"It's been a bit." Bismuth sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.
"About five thousand years." Garnet added. The grey gem, Selenite, choked.
"F-five, thousand ?"
"Give or take."
Selenite clung to the Peridot for a second, wiggling, before she straightened. "And if I… Lower this barrier, do you promise not to attack?"
"Promise." Garnet smiled, dispelling her gauntlets. "But you don't need to put it down if you're still worried about it." The gems had become a lot better at handling the introduction of new gems to Era Three.
So, they took the time to explain everything. The war. Pink's fake shattering. The Diamonds lashing out in grief-stricken revenge. Era two. Earth's survival. Steven Universe. Everything.
The two listened raptly, expressions hard to read. When it all drew to a close, the Peridot spoke up first.
"So… Pink really is gone?" She asked, voice very soft. "Then I guess this place can be shuttered."
"What… is it?" The Crystal Gem Peridot looked around. "I didn't have time to read the files. Just that it's some kind of "conversion" facility?"
"Pink Diamond was pondering a way to protect organics. It was sort of an open secret that she was always very curious and interested in organic creatures, and an actual secret that she wanted to protect the indiginous humans." Selenite nervously wrung her hands. "So we were tasked with finding a way that perhaps might have worked."
"This place was built to create… hybrids." The Peridot waggled her hand when she said "hybrids", as though it wasn't quite the word she wanted but it was close enough. "Not in the sense that… "Steven" is, but, it's close enough… the idea was that if we could do that, the other Diamonds wouldn't want to harm them. Of course, we weren't anywhere close to finished when the rebellion broke out, and we hadn't even begun testing phases when we heard messages claiming that Pink had been… shattered , so it's probably a good thing we're in the ocean! No humans can find us!" She puffed her chest proudly.
Her puff faded when she saw the grim expressions on the Crystal Gem's faces, and her own face fell.
"You guys totally brought a human with you didn't you?" She weakly asked.
Selenite squeaked. "Oh, that could be very bad, especially if the automatic systems were running. I hadn't worked all the bugs out of it yet… Orrrrr maybe it won't be bad? We uh… I have no idea what the procedure might have done." She cowered behind the Peridot nervously.
The uncertainty was worse than knowing for certain.
What was happening to Ying?
My head was pounding when I began to wake up.
Not as bad as my fucking back though.
Holy god my back.
I blinked slowly, trying to force my eyes open, only to rapidly force them shut with a groan. "Oh, god ." They were burning too.
"Oh. You're awake." A soft, slightly clinical voice. I let out a confirmation groan.
"Sorry." I mumbled. "Too much pain to move or open my eyes."
"Anesthetic must have worn off. You've been unconscious for a while." I could hear scribbling. "My name is Dr. Maheswaran. You're in the hospital."
"Connie's mom?" I managed to force an eye open. She definitely looked like a taller, more severe Connie. The woman cracked a small smile, nodding.
"Yes. She dragged you here. I'm the closest thing to an expert on gems here, so I wound up taking this case over. You're lucky my schedule was open for this."
"All I know is that it is gem related so I'm in the right place…" I mumbled, wincing. "W-what- ow. What happened?" I could feel panic beginning to stir in my heart but I stuffed it down for now. Panic could come after my diagnosis.
"It's… certainly not easy to explain." The doctor admitted, keeping her bedside manner calm as she could. "I'll start with the good news though. You appear to be stable and healthy apart from a very light sunburn on your neck. Apparently they were in such a panic that my daughter and your friend forgot sunscreen for you. Other than that, and the… we'll get to what happened to you momentarily, I don't know what exactly to call it… Other than that you seem to be fine. Your vitals are good, and other than the pain, hyperventilation and unconsciousness you aren't exhibiting serious side effects."
"So… Uh… Side effects to… what exactly?" I warily pushed up a little, twisting to sit up.
"I'm not entirely sure." Dr. Maheswaran admitted. "I'm the closest thing to an expert when it comes to gem-slash-human interactions in a medical field, and my experience is limited, but… It appears that some kind of stone has been embedded into your back."
Her tone was calm and clinical. It was actually oddly calming, especially considering the reeling shock of hearing her words. She lifted a picture that had been taken of my back earlier so I could see. A pale, rough looking stone embedded in my back. Oddly, there were no signs of injury from the drill that had torn me apart, aside from light hints of scarring.
"Oh god." I groaned, burying my face in my hands. "What the hell …"
My heart was starting to pound again. I'm pretty sure my hands were shaking too, as I curled my fingers around my arms, hugging myself clumsily.
What was going to happen to me?!