And now the resolution for cliffhanger #...50? I lost count.
Even for a group as eclectic and eccentric as the Crystal Gems, watching someone get flung over the horizon by a massive liquid tentacle after offering a handshake was just surreal. All six of them just looked out to the ocean, unable to see or hear Bismuth anymore. Eventually Amethyst broke the silence by asking the question on all of their minds.
"Okay, that was awesome and all, but WHYYYYYYYYYYY?!"
As the group pondered such a profound question, Pearl eventually recalled a moment from her and Lapis' trip to the former Crystal Gem armory which made her groan and slap her own gem in consternation.
"Lapis, don't tell me…You think Bismuth is the one who-"
"I know she did it. She's the reason I was put in that mirror," spoke the aquatic gem with enough malice and firmness that the others almost took it at face value.
Even still, Pearl insisted she bring Bismuth back to at least hear the other side of the story in order to verify her claim. Although she scoffed at the thought of her being innocent, Lapis complied as she flew into the night to retrieve the unwilling purple projectile. As she was unceremoniously flung back onto the beach by the same water formation, amazing Peridot with her lung capacity after another long bout of screaming, Lapis returned with her arms crossed and a sour look on her face.
"Okay, what the heck was that for?!" shouted Bismuth, her temper flaring up once more as this was becoming the second worst day of her life. As she got into Lapis' face, the smaller gem did not flinch and merely stared back with a disturbing lack of emotion.
"Bismuth, it appears that Lapis is under the impression that you caused her some serious pain," spoke Pearl, hoping to stop another water-whipping, "And she still has a grudge."
"You could say that…" grumbled the gem in question.
"What do you mean, there aren't that many Lapis Lazulis on Homeworld. And besides that, they aren't soldiers," rebutted Bismuth, but that answer clearly did not sit well with Lapis.
"I had a habit of wandering off. I was in the middle of a field, just looking around, when a battle came up around me. Remember that?"
Bismuth looked puzzled by her statement and suddenly had a recollection.
"Oh wait! There was this one time I found some stupid Lapis Lazuli wandering around and I…" she trailed off as she saw Lapis give her a glare that could melt glaciers. The others, even Steven, all looked at her with some mixture of shock, disappointment and disgust. The sole exception was Pearl who was too busy holding her face in her hands in shame.
"You attacked Lapis when she was doing nothing?! What's the matter with you?!" shouted Amethyst.
"It was the heat of the moment. She had a Diamond insignia on her. I panicked! My bad, alright?"
"Rose specifically ordered us to never attack bystanders, Bismuth. As such a close affiliate of hers, you of all gems should know that," stated Pearl.
"Look, I'm sorry! She's still whole, right? What's the worst that could have happened?" That was the last sentence Bismuth could utter before several liquid chains emerged from out of the ocean. They wrapped around her hands, feet and neck with a disturbing amount of pressure considering they were purely made of water. The larger blacksmith already felt her extremities ache and her neck chafe. That discomfort paled, however, when an incensed Lapis silently walked up to her. The chains forced Bismuth to meet her eye to eye and she suddenly had flashbacks to several very ugly battles from days gone by. Suddenly taking on an angry hoard of Homeworld gems singlehandedly sounded downright delightful.
"You really want to know how bad it got, Bismuth? Okay then, I'll tell you. Imagine being stuck in a pane of glass for 6,500 years. In all that time you are fully aware of what is happening and are screaming to be let out. For around half of that time, give or take a century, you are constantly drilled by Homeworld sentries for information you don't have. You plead innocent, you beg to be released, but they insist you're lying and keep pressing you. Then they throw you away like garbage, nearly breaking your gem in the process, and leave you for dead. Then, after spending another couple thousand years along in some desert, a gem finds you and puts you into storage up until about a year ago. All I felt was cold, beaten, alone and violated. Oh, and some unbearable pain once the broken gem came in. I had no reason to go on, no reason to live anymore. And now I learn all that misery was caused by some reckless, hotheaded, moronic psychopath who punches first and asks questions later when she should have known Lapis Lazulis are strictly used for cleanup only when the colonization process is complete. That's the kind of stuff they teach you minutes after being formed. Does that answer your question? My life has been mostly hell thanks to you. I have every reason to despise you, and trust me, I do. The only reason I'm explaining this to you instead of flinging you into the sun so you can experience some of the excruciating torture you put me through is because Steven wants to give you a chance. Count yourself lucky that he wants to save you. And if you hurt him again I will make you suffer so much even the Diamonds themselves will feel sorry for you." Her voice never wavered. Every syllable was packed with enough fire to burn a city to ashes.
Once her speech was done, the chains receded in an instant. Everyone on the beach was too stunned to move an inch. Bismuth was actually close to hyperventilating, brought closer to breaking than any of the hundreds of battles she fought in.
"Oh, and I might have amnesia thanks to you, so there's that," added a much calmer Lapis, but a grimace was still there. Once her back was turned, however, she gave a smile to the still stunned group and gave Steven a hug before heading back to her room for more sleep. Unsure of how to proceed after that episode, the rest simply headed inside. Bismuth eventually decided to head in herself once everyone was back to their rooms and make swords in the old Crystal Gem forge until the sun came up. Along with calming her nerves, she still had a mission and intended on making sure Homeworld was going down.
After another incident that disturbed his sleep, Steven woke up long after he was supposed to according to his training schedule. Given the recent change to their team, however, everyone was in an unsaid agreement to let today be an off one. After getting dressed, he bound down the stairs to where his dad was calmly preparing a late breakfast.
"Morning, kiddo! Ready for another fun day?" he jovially asked while cooking up some turkey bacon.
"Heh, yeah," he shyly remarked, "What happened to Bismuth?"
"I'm over here," answered the blacksmith. Her and Pearl were sitting in two of the chairs around the new fire pit. The latter waved Steven over to join them and was soon brought his breakfast by Greg before the balding dad ran out to attend to some business.
"So what have you guys been doing?" asked Steven.
"Well Bismuth came by while you were asleep and wanted to be brought up to speed on everything that has happened since her…suspension began," Pearl replied awkwardly, not wanting to offend her comrade, "Naturally, it has been quite the long chat."
"You can say that again," grumbled Bismuth, "I still can't believe about the corruption thing! How could those Diamonds do something like that?!"
"If it's any consolation, Steven managed to appease one and it was safely released into the wild. At least there's some positive outcome in all this," amended Pearl. The larger gem just sighed and rested her head on her hand. Steven just ate in silence as they spoke.
"I guess that's better than nothing, but still… Everyone? Even Biggs?" Pearl simply looked down at her knees in grief.
"We found her terrorizing a village in South America around eight hundred years ago. The gem we knew was nowhere to be seen."
Before more reminiscing could occur, the house was rocked by a shockwave that shook the foundation and sent Steven sprawling onto the floor. The obvious question of what was happening was answered as Peridot came stumbling out of her room with an old-fashioned fire extinguisher in her hands and scorch marks along her face.
"Steven, how do you operate one of these contraptions? Also, does anyone here have more information on cold fusion?"
"Just pull the pin out and spray the foam to put out the fire. And no, I don't know unless its two gems fusing while ice skating."
"Stand back, I'll handle it," spoke Garnet as she calmly walked in from her morning stretches. She opened her left hand and let the flames stream from the lab into her ruby until it was no more. Peridot muttered her thanks as she struggled with the unwieldly metal canister and stumbled back into her room. Bismuth was trying to pick her jaw off the arm of the chair.
"How in the name of Homeworld did you do that?!" she shouted incredulously.
"Steven taught me how to do it," was all she answered with before waving goodbye to them all and heading back outside. Bismuth was still gaping as the boy in question finished his breakfast and placed his dish in the sink.
"I hadn't gotten to that part yet," said a sheepish Pearl, "Sorry about that."
As the two continued to discuss the times gone by, the rest of the beach house was abuzz with activity. Steven headed outside for his latest bout of exercise with Garnet, Amethyst and Lapis. Peridot spent another day cooped up in her lab working on only the Diamonds know what, only interrupted by another visit from Greg to discuss his personal project. It was not until noon when Steven was having lunch that Garnet gathered all of them together for a meeting.
"I've realized we've been missing something in our preparations," spoke the fusion once everyone was gathered around the fire pit. Everyone, save for Steven who was eating his sandwich, had their eyes on her.
"We have all been acting in smaller groups or individuals when we should be a single team. We need some way to test our abilities as a group. Fortunately, there's a mission we need to take care of before Homeworld arrives."
"What, is there another gem artifact we need to find? How many of those did you lose during the original conflict anyways?" remarked Peridot.
"Hey, you try managing a couple hundred items while all kinds of chaos go on around you. It's not that easy!" rebuked Bismuth.
"I did. I spent the equivalent of three hundred years keeping track of warp pads and kindergartens even as colonization efforts were going on around me. I'll concede to you once you step into my role for a few centuries."
Bismuth, rather than get upset, chuckled at the techie's remark and allowed Garnet to continue.
"No, but it is imperative that we handle this before Homeworld arrive. I've located an abandoned Homeworld garrison about two hundred miles away in remarkably good shape. We need to remove its power supply so that Homeworld can't use it."
"Wait, why would we just take the power supply? Couldn't we destroy it to make sure?" asked Steven as he finished his lunch.
"That might be a viable option, but it could also be a potential asset for us. With it being so close to the temple, they could use it as a ground base to launch attacks on us or even create more gems. But by simply depowering the base, while keeping the core supply intact, we make it so we hold exclusive access to it unless Homeworld goes through the effort of repairing it," explained Pearl. Garnet nodded in agreement.
"I'd like to add that them going to the effort of recreating an outdated power supply would be highly unlikely. It would simply be more efficient to set up a temporary outpost if they wanted a terrestrial base to begin with," contributed Peridot. This seemed to raise everyone's spirits as the plan came together.
"It will also serve as an exercise as to how to operate as one cohesive unit. There will no doubt be various countermeasures to stop intruders, thus meaning we can learn each other's strengths and weaknesses in an effort to reach the power supply."
While Lapis glanced at Bismuth with distrust, the others saw no issue with the plan and strolled up to the warp pad. They reached their destination, a small clearing surrounded by towering trees, in a literal flash. After a short stroll through the pines and oaks they found their destination. Just as Garnet stated, the gem base was in excellent shape considering it was abandoned several millennia ago. The structure was surprisingly ornate given the pragmatic approach of Homeworld with the walls adorned with various splashes of yellow, blue, white and pink that swirled around in coalesced into the emblem of the Diamond Authority at multiple points. The overall shape was rectangular, three stories tall with cylindrical wings jutting out all four sides. As the group approached, Steven was suddenly stopped in his tracks by an invisible wall about fifty feet away from the entrance.
"A force field? Awesome, can we get one?!" cheered Steven, his optimism shining through much to the other gems' amusement. While Peridot was indeed considering such a defense mechanism, the others were puzzled as to how to breach the structure. Amethyst immediately went to her usual tactic of ramming into it at full speed with her spin dash. After the fifth attempt got her nowhere but closer to a concussion, Bismuth had to chuckle at her resilience and looked around for any control mechanism. Peridot took the same approach while Pearl and Garnet simply watched.
"They don't seem to be working together," murmured Pearl, anxious at their immediate reflex being to split up.
"It's only the first step. If we're stuck for too long, we'll band together and think of something."
"What are you guys doing?" inquired Lapis.
"Trying to figure out a way to bypass this force field," replied Pearl.
"Speaking of that, you might wanna stop your friend here. She's bashing her head in trying to knock it down," shouted Bismuth as she held a struggling Amethyst in her arms. The smaller scrapper's eyes were spinning in her head and her voice sounded too loopy for comfort.
Lapis merely shifted her eyes from side to side as she walked right past where the force field still holding up Steven and the other gems. As the others gawked at her she reached the front door and placed her hand on a small pad on the wall which read her handprint and deactivated the barrier. The others, even the stunned Amethyst still in Bismuth's grasp, was speechless save for Garnet who merely grinned at the sight.
"Guess they never took me out of the system when I got stuck. To this machine I'm still a Homeworld gem." With that, Amethyst was dropped with an unceremonious thud and proceeded to charge in headfirst. The others quickly followed behind with Garnet still shaking her head in bemusement at the turn of events.
After making their way past the entrance way, a hallway lit with nothing but pink lights from the floor they found themselves in the main chamber of the base. Inside was a large workstation with multiple seats clearly built for smaller gems such as peridots that also defied the age of the building. Somehow the place appeared to be in perfect working order with only the staff leaving in the wake of the conflict with the Crystal Gems. While most of the group simply looked around, Peridot gleefully ran up to one of the control consoles and typed her way past the encryptions and into the main files.
"According to these schematics, the power supply is actually beneath this central room. All I need to do is find the controls to reveal it." The rest of the group, especially Pearl, was utterly baffled at how smoothly their mission was going. At this rate getting their goal would be a literal stroll in the park. That ease changed, however, when a small spherical droid appeared and started scanning the room. When it reached Steven, however, the droid flew straight back from the slot in the wall it emerged from and all the power in the base was cut off.
"WANTED REBEL DETECTED! DEPLOYING PROTECTIVE MEASURES!" blared from the walls. Everyone, save for an anxious Lapis who felt vulnerable with no liquid present, geared up for a fight. The alarm soon went quiet as several robotic spheres, similar to the ones Peridot used on her maintenance trips, began rolling out of slots in the walls. Once they were all released they began rolling everywhere until coming to a complete stop. They all stood in silence as they expected the round droids to attack, set up a trap, or some other maneuver and yet nothing happened. Several minutes passed with no one moving a muscle until Amethyst, her patience having been eroded by the quiet and tension, shouted "Are these stupid robots gonna fight or what?!"
That turned out to be a major mistake as the robots took the sound as the cue to attack by shooting multiple lasers at the purple gem, causing her to dodge and run about as she dodged the fire. This quickly escalated as every robonoid began firing lasers, all of them causing profound discomfort whenever they hit their mark, in random directions forcing the gems to scatter. Steven tried summoning his bubble shield, but that proved a liability as the lasers refracted off its surface meaning more fire for the other gems to avoid.
"Nice going, Amethyst!" shouted Pearl as she tried to deflect the beams heading her way with her spear.
"Now's not the time for bickering!" ordered Garnet, thinking proactively and using her ice powers to freeze many of the robonoids to the floor. "Remember this is also an example of how to work together."
Bismuth trying to squash many of the spheres under her foot, but due to the being the bulkiest of the group she was taking the brunt of the attack. While she was still standing, it was obvious the lasers were beginning to wear her down as her movements became sluggish. Peridot, trying desperately to control the robots with her ferrokinesis, offered her advice.
"Go for the control console! By damaging that it should disrupt the program that's controlling these nuisances!"
The larger gem took the hint and charged through more beams to reach the central console, which she noticed was remarkably unharmed despite the rampant fire. She quickly morphed her hands into hammers and smashed the main station to pieces. At first the plan seemed to work as the incessant lasers stopped. Then the alarm started blaring once again and the robonoids went fully berserk, now rolling and bouncing erratically while resuming their laser barrage. Even Garnet began to get overwhelmed as even when she managed to freeze or smash any of them, more filed in from the walls to take their place. It seems that Bismuth also destroyed whatever inhibition was keeping the swarm of spherical menaces from going all-out to avoid damaging the hardware. Now they had nothing to hold them back from whittling down the intruders until they were no more.
Steven was desperately trying to reflect the lasers with his shield, but it still led to more fire heading towards the gems every time he managed to block one. Pearl was becoming exhausted as the fire continued along with many of the robonoids colliding with her. Amethyst tried to corral them with her whip, but now they were too out of control to manage. Bismuth was still getting hammered. Peridot had no ability to control them thanks to the constant fire interrupting her concentration. Lapis felt completely helpless as she tried flying and outmaneuvering as many as she could, but she was still taking heavy damage. Garnet, who had some success at freezing them before, now could not resort to using either element out of risk of freezing or burning one of her teammates.
Eventually the fight became too much for Lapis as the aquatic gem was gunned down and fell to the floor with a dangerous thus. The short but painful plummet, combined with the constant laser fire and her natural frailty given that she was never built for combat forced her to the ground with a piercing thud. The robonoids began pounding on her body as more laser beams found their mark.
"LAPIS!" shouted Steven and Peridot in shock, the latter forgoing her own safety to charge over to her comrade. She swatted away as many of the bots as she could, and raised her to eye level.
"Peri, what are you doing? Protect yourself…" she mumbled as unconsciousness began to set in. The tenacious scientist was not having that.
"If you think I would to abandon my comrade and most valued companion, you are mistaken. We need to get you outside so the others can handle this."
"But-"
"Did you hear me?! I may not be much use in this conflict either, but I will not abandon you! And I am certain that none of the others would. As Crystal Gems and as friends."
Lapis, touched by the sentimentality, grabbed onto Peridot's hand. As soon as the two touched, however, their bodies changed into pure light save for their gemstones. The others were stupefied as the light coalesced into a new being. She stood as tall as Garnet with bright blue-green skin and a hairdo that rose to a point at the top with a loose back that flowed down to her neck. She also possessed four arms and a pair of heterochromatic eyes, the left blue and the right green. Her outfit was a vibrant, greenish-blue short-sleeved dress that parted past her waists and draped around her legs in two separate pieces. Her two gems were a triangular turquoise on her forehead and a tear-shaped one at the top of her spine. Upon first forming, she looked down at her own body in bewilderment. It was only when one of the robotic orbs bashed into her face that snapped her out of her trance. Without a word, the new fusion held out her hand and forced the robot to stop in midair. With a slight squeeze of that hand, the robot began to melt into a puddle of reflective liquid.
Noticing that one of ranks had fallen, the bombardment stopped and all the droids turned their attention on the new fusion trying to analyze this unknown new threat. Said fusion simply glanced at the hundreds of robonoids around her with a look of vague interest.
She then spoke with an aloof, yet confident tone. "I am Turquoise, and you have proven a grave danger to myself and my allies. It appears that I am greatly outnumbered by your ranks. There are roughly one hundred and fifty of you remaining compared to me."
At that moment, she raised her lower set of arms and forced the liquid remains of the robonoid to float and then slash three of the nearest droids into scrap with a flick of her wrists. In only seconds the now destroyed robonoids were liquefied and merged into one large band of silvery liquid.
"Your numbers are insufficient. Sucks to be you."
From that point on, Turquoise did not speak as she sprouted her own aquatic wings, now colored blue-green with a noticeable metallic shine to them, and flew over the swarm as fast she could, given the close quarters. As she flew at headlong speed, her new weapon cut down the spheres and dodged every shot they fired at her. After reducing one third of them to piles of parts, Turquoise stopped in the center of the room and let the deluge of liquid silver death swirl around her. As each robot fell they were melted and assimilated into the silvery hurricane and grew larger, protecting the new gem at its center and growing more powerful. After several minutes the robots were all destroyed and Turquoise allowed the maelstrom to stop. She had a relaxed smirk on her face as she walked up to Garnet, who spent the entire time beaming with pride and excitement.
"The power supply is under this floor, correct?" she asked. Her fellow fusion simply nodded. Without missing a beat, all the stannic liquid merged into a large drill head and tunneled into the floor until a noticeable pink glow appeared. Pearl simply reached down and grabbed the object they sought - an octagonal sphere still radiating with pink energy. In an instant the sphere was bubbled and sent to the temple.
"That was amazing!" cheered Steven as he stared with starry-eyes at Turquoise. Unfortunately, his attention made her face scrunch in disgust and split back into Peridot and Lapis. While the former was uncharacteristically silent, the latter was on her hands and knees panting as if she was scared for her life.
"Whoa, are you alright?" asked Bismuth, concerned by her sudden collapse. The neurotic aquatic, too shaken to be angered, tried to reply.
"It's just that- Last time- It- She- We- I can't-"
"I get it, bad experience. But take a deep breath now, everything's fine."
Lapis did as she was told and inhaled deeply. Within seconds she had her breath under control again, but was now rather perplexed.
"Why are you helping me? I threatened to throw you into the sun."
"One, because I frankly needed a kick like that. Two, you're still a Crystal Gem and I always stand by my teammates. And three," she brought herself down to Lapis' level and whispered, "Because I was uncomfortable with fusion at first. You're not alone there."
Seeing this display of comradery warmed the other gems' hearts and they all strolled out of the now-useless base with content faces all around. Before leaving, however, Peridot just had to get her hands on the force field control panel. Steven helped out by ripping the panel out of the wall with some effort and the group headed back with their mission complete and their unity stronger just as Garnet intended.
Well, seeing as my birthday is tomorrow, I decided to give all my wonderful readers a gift: My first original fusion! Hope you all enjoyed Turquoise and tune in next time as the Crystal Gems continue to up their game.
Thank you all so much for reading! Especially since this story recently hits 5,000 hits! I never imagined this story would get this kind of response on this and it's all thanks to you! As per usual, please feel free to leave a review and have a wonderful birthday for yourself whenever it comes around!