So, with some OCs thrown into the mix, let's head back to the temple to resolve some issues there. And now I realize my writing has the tendency to change focus as often as a disco ball...Enjoy the show!
It took several hours for Lapis Lazuli to emerge from the bathroom following the training outburst that turned her into a nervous wreck. Her fear was less from the thought of actually hurting Pearl, knowing the veteran had seen far worse scrapes in her time. No, her dread came from both her fear of Homeworld (naturally) and letting down the other Crystal Gems. As much as she did not realize it at first, Lapis loved finally standing up for herself and all the new faces she had come to admire over that day of bonding. The smile Steven gave her after she saved them was fresh in her mind. Now here she was being scared over nothing. Some hero she felt like now.
When she emerged she saw all of the other Gems were absent, correctly assuming they returned to the sky arena for more training. The only one present was Connie, calmly doing homework on the coffee table while she waited for her mother to pick her up. It seemed Priyanka was having another late night, but that only gave Connie more time to focus on algebra.
"Hey Lapis," waved Connie, looking up from her paper to give her eyes a rest, "How are you feeling?"
"Embarrassed." Lapis hung her head in shame, but Connie just patted the seat next to her. The gem took her offer and sat, resting her head on her knees.
"Connie, I feel like an idiot. I flipped out over nothing, in front of everyone, just because I'm scared Homeworld will come and do who knows what. I don't feel much like a Crystal Gem now…"
"Why? It's only been one day. When I first learned about all this, I couldn't handle it right away!"
"Really?"
"Yeah! Everyone needs time to adjust to a big change like this. I can understand why you're scared; I blew up at Steven for similar reasons. You just need a while to let all this sink in, okay?"
Lapis let her legs touch the floor and leaned back with a slight smile on her face. "Thanks Connie." The young girl returned to her equations while Lapis simply walked outside, once again glancing up at the poster of Steven's mother before stepping onto the porch and observing the waves. The rest of the Crystal Gems warped back in an hour later to find her still standing there watching the coastline in total serenity. They all left her there until the evening when she came in, said hi to everyone, and returned to her spot in the bathroom to sleep over everything that had happened today.
When Lapis closed her eyes, she was curled up in the bathtub of Steven's house with a rather pleasant state of mind. When she opened them, however, that went away as she awoke in a black void. There was no trace of her room or any of them Gems and panic quickly began to overcome her mind.
"Hello?! Steven, what's happening?" she yelled into the distance, but her voice seemed weak against the dark expanse. Her hopes were lifted when she heard footsteps, only to quickly start backing away when she saw the figure they belonged to: a hulking orange gem with a head of wild white hair and a cruel face she hoped to never see again.
Jasper's face had the same domineering gaze. Her smile was full of malice. "I'll tell you what's happening Lapis. You're coming with me."
Lapis tried to pull out her wings, but they never came. She felt around her back but could not find her gem. Somehow it had been removed from her body. She began frantically searching around for it, wondering how this was all possible.
"Looking for this?"
The pernicious bruiser held up her left hand, where Lapis' now grey gem rested. The frailer flyer was completely baffled, but her remaining courage pushed her onward. She ran straight at her, but suddenly pain racked her entire form. She looked up and saw Jasper squeezing her gem, every push on the stone sending pulses of throbbing pain through her. She knelt and clutched her sides, causing Jasper to stop.
"You are nothing, you hear me?!" shouted Jasper, grabbing Lapis by one arm like a doll, "All you are is a pathetic loser who wanted to abandon her comrades. What good are you to anyone?"
"I… Steven… The Crystal Gems… Peridot… they…"
"What, those failures? Don't you know what's happened to them already?"
The blackness was suddenly broken by a series of spotlights, all harsh white with a single object silhouetted in the center. Lapis walked towards them, but stopped dead when she recognized what they were; mirrors. Five hand mirrors identical to the ones she was stuck in. The worse part was on the front of them she could clearly make out the faces of Peridot, Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet's two components. They were shouting, crying for help. Amethyst was literally pounding the glass to no avail. Lapis tried stepping forward, but Jasper put a stop to it by gripping her gem. The helpless Lapis could only watch as a massive figure rose up behind them, everything hidden in shadow except a stern pair of yellow-colored eyes with unnatural irises. She was staring down at her from several stories up. She glanced down at the mirrors beneath and one by one the images faded to nothingness. When they were all dark, they began dousing the space with a never-ending torrent of black water. Lapis did not bother moving as her tears began mixing with the flood which spread along the expanse. She could have done something with all this water, but the pain of watching all her new and old friends die was too much. Jasper, still acting as confident as ever, gripped her shoulder and whispered into her ear.
"Don't worry about those losers. You're mine now…"
Jasper then took hold of the stone and placed it on Lapis' back in its proper place, but not as an act of generosity. Lapis knew exactly what Jasper wanted. She summoned whatever strength she had left and tried to run, but without even moving the other gem stopped her dead in her tracks. Her voice seemed oddly giddy at this development.
"Trying to fight back now? A lot of good that will do you…" She strode forward, Lapis falling onto her knees against her will. And then something happened she never would have imagined; she smiled. She began to laugh as Japer forced her onto the floor, still controlling her through her gem somehow.
"I told you, you are mine!" But Jasper stayed right where she was as Lapis' body began to shift right before her eyes. Her skin and gem turned to a shade of turquoise, her size rapidly increasing as her arms and body rippled with muscle. A second set of eyes grew below her own and her legs morphed into another set of arms with a third pair erupting from her sides. Her back half grew bulkier than her front, forcing her to arch her back and carry herself on four of her arms, and her hair grew out into a wild white frizzy mane. The only thing that remained the same was the position of her gem and her voice.
All the while she was still laughing. She felt power erupt from every part of her new body and she loved it. The size, the strength, it was making her giddy to crush anything that got in her way… no, everything that got in Jasper's way. She was Jasper's pet, her sole purpose to obey and serve, destroying anything she was told to with no hesitation unless her master said so. The only other name she knew was her own: Malachite.
Jasper looked pleased as Malachite, despite towering over, and eagerly waited for her first opportunity for her new pet to show off her power. As if on command, a new light shone forth showing a young boy with a pink gem for his navel.
He looked at her with confusion and fear, but that was no concern to Malachite. Her only concern came when her master snapped her fingers and pointed at this strange youth.
"That's Rose Quartz. Destroy her, but not right away. Make it hurt first." Malachite and Jasper shared the same sadistic smile as all the water around them rushed towards their enemy and formed a whirlpool. The young boy tried to shield himself from the onslaught, but was swept away and battered by the intense force. Out of nowhere the cyclone stopped dropping the boy several feet onto his back with a harsh thud. He was soaked from head to toe, bruised from the fall and utterly terrified by the monsters clearly enjoying his suffering.
"Jasper… what did you do to Lapis?" The young boy asked, but the orange brute just laughed at his misfortune.
"There is no Lapis anymore. I admit it's not as good as having the power myself, but now there's no way she can fight back. Isn't that right Malachite?"
"Yes my Jasper!" replied the massive monstrosity, her voice sounding disturbingly enamored to say such a sentence.
With that the boy tried charging forward towards his former friend, but a wall of water surged forth to push him back. He summoned a large pink shield to help him hold is ground, but Malachite just commanded the water around his feet to literally sweep him away in a current. A geyser then launched the boy dozens of feet in the air before another caught him during his fall. He could barely breathe as he was roughly tossed from one water spout to the next with Jasper and Malachite gleefully drinking in his misery.
Even after another rough landing the shield-bearing boy refused to back down, and at one point tried charging right at Jasper. Before he could get close, however, Malachite stomped in front of him with startling speed given her physique and literally roared at him to stay away. When he refused to back down, he was grabbed by the enormous mutated gem and crushed in one of her mighty hands while he squirmed for dear life as his bones began bending under the pressure. Eventually he screamed in agony as sickening cracks rang out from everything as his ribs, arms, legs and everything in between snapped. Satisfied her master was safe, Malachite flung the now broken boy onto the ground. Jasper was very pleased seeing her old enemy finally defeated and helpless before her and her new pet.
With a final snap of fingers, Jasper called for this massacre to end. All of the water from the darkened mirrors flooded forth, molding and freezing into hundreds of icy shards aimed right at her prey. Malachite held her hands high and grinned as the boy gave her one last glance, pleading for the Lapis Lazuli he once knew to come out and save him. Her grin only widened seeing this as she thrusted her hands down, sending the shards flying at him and-
It was two in the morning at the beach house. Steven was contently snoozing away while Peridot was on his couch reading some library books to learn about human history and technology. Other than her using her metal powers to levitate a flashlight over the pages as she read, it seemed to be a peaceful night with calm weather and everyone resting after a long day.
Then a massive groaning noise and several small explosions tore the calm to ribbons.
As Steven was forced out of bed by the shockwaves, Peridot gripped her flashlight and began scouting the area. Once he managed to get his bearings, Steven ran to the temple only to run into the other gems emerging from Garnet's room.
"Steven, are you alright?!" yelled Pearl, lifting the boy into her arms to check him for injuries.
"I'm fine and the house seems to be too. Maybe it was a really sudden earthquake?"
"I doubt it, Steven. Gems, check everything outside in case there's an intruder. Steven, stay here with me," ordered Garnet, planting herself firmly on the warp pad in case this was the work of a malevolent gem who stayed inside to avoid pursuit. The other Gems returned soon after, though, checking the entire beach for signs of escape.
"Garnet, our search for other Gems was a bust," spoke Amethyst, "But Pearl found something really weird under the house."
"I checked under the porch to see if a gem was hiding until we all evacuated. There wasn't any gem there, but there was something wrong with our water pump."
"Hold on, we have a water pump?" asked Steven.
"Yes, we have a specially installed water pump located under the house in order to fuel the indoor plumbing. We modified it with some special gem artifacts so it would purify seawater to make fresh water for the indoor plumbing."
Steven was briefly starstruck hearing this. "Wow! Where does our electricity come from?!"
"Solar panels," said Garnet flatly, wanting to get back on track, "You said you found something unusual."
"Right, I have no idea how this could have happened shy of a massive malfunction or first-class sabotage and rest assured the system is capable of repairing itself over time but-"
"All the water's gone! It just vanished somehow!" shouted Amethyst. Pearl looked less than amused to be cut off mid-ramble, but the impish purple gem just shrugged under her gaze. "What? Garnet probably wants you to get to the point."
"She's right." As Amethyst silently beamed at calling the shot, Garnet walked over to the sink and opened the cabinet beneath. Much to the collected group's shock, the pipe had completely burst into shards. Pearl placed a nearby bucket under the pipe in case the water returned before the damage was fixed. This only puzzled the five even more until Steven ran to the bathroom to check on Lapis.
"Lapis, are you okay?" he tried knocking on the door, but hardly any sound came. He tried banging on the door as hard as possible, but for all his effort it sounded like he was hitting the door with pillows over his hands.
"Okay, now this is getting weird. By OUR standards," remarked Amethyst as she and the others all gathered around the door.
"Lapis, is everything alright in there?" asked Pearl. She moved Steven aside and tried to open the door herself, but it refused to budge! Even as she started trying to push the door with her entire body it stayed in place. With her quickly devolving into a wreck as irritation and tumult overrode her normally logical mind, Garnet decided to take the more direct approach.
"Lapis, this is Garnet. We are coming in there to make sure that you are safe after those shockwaves. Open the door now or we have no choice but to force our way in." Garnet readied one of her gauntlets and gave the aquatic gem inside thirty seconds to comply. After the time elapsed with no response, Garnet thrust her fist straight into the door which even then remained standing. This was not the end, however, as Garnet punched again and again with her slowly making headway as the door began to tremble and buckle. When the wood finally began to crack, all of them were too preoccupied with the thought of Lapis being in possible danger to notice the bizarre rippling noise on the other side or notice the smell of dampness coming from inside. After several minutes of assault, the door finally broke completely-
And the five were swept away by a miniature tidal wave! With no warning, an enormous rush of water forced all of them away sputtering in shock as the rest of the house was drenched. Steven was left completely dazed, coughing up a fit after swallowing a large gulp of the flood forcing him on the floor by the front door. Amethyst, Pearl, and Peridot were all in shock, but otherwise seemed unharmed as they were carried into the kitchen by the wave. Garnet, meanwhile, remained firmly planted in front of the door as strode in to find something that left even her speechless.
There was Lapis Lazuli, hugging herself in a fetal position, rocking herself back and forth on the floor of the bathtub where she went to rest hours ago. Her eyes were clamped shut, streaming tears nonstop and whimpering in fear. The entire room resembled a battlefield, all of the Steven's toiletries were gone as they were carried away by the flood. The sink was smashed on the floor with its pipe in pieces, several tiles where missing from the floor and shower walls, and the showerhead itself was demolished. Garnet walked forward, stupefied by the sight in front of her, and cradled the still weeping Lapis in her arms. She carried her out onto the beach with the other gems close behind.
You know, I was worried that I couldn't make something genuinely dark before this story? Don't feel that way now! With that nightmare fuel out of the way, tune in next time for some much lighter fare.
Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!