Previously on How It Will End: Aquamarine ruined everything!
And now the thrilling conclusion!
Steven was finding out more and more that wearing his heart on his sleeves had a handful of disadvantages. It made him very vulnerable to these types of situations and he could not help but remember how he was forced to cooperate with Adamite's demands thanks to her holding Greg hostage. He knew deep down he would have to correct this or one day it would be his undoing.
At this exact moment, however, he was more concerned with barreling straight for Aquamarine, still holding her own subordinate hostage high above her head in with her wand, his desire for a peaceful solution gone. He barely noticed the small brigade of enemy gems standing between him and his enemy.
The other six Crystal Gems had no choice but to follow him into the fray lest he end up in Homeworld's clothes. Although the fight may have been more even in numbers, now their opponents were all equipped with weapons that would destroy their forms with a single hit. The odds were still against them, but when has that ever stopped them?
The two sides met in a frenzy as the assembled amethysts and jaspers tried to force their rebellious enemies back into their cores, only to be met with surprising resistance. This was most especially the case with Steven as he stormed right through any unfortunate gem who got too close. Several unfortunate gems found themselves being swatted away by his shield and sent soaring by his strength. Others were impaled by his spear and forced into their gems themselves. Had any of them been paying specific attention, however, they may have noticed that the destabilizers were barely fazing him. Instead of being poofed into nothingness, all he got was a mildly uncomfortable shock that only agitated him further.
He eventually broke through the line and came face-to-face with a still-smirking Aquamarine. Above her Topaz could only look down and silently pray this debacle would end without her being ripped apart.
"Put her down NOW!" shouted Steven. The petite commander was very amused by his anger.
"Oh really now Rose, you could at least say please," she chided, "Proper etiquette is a valuable skill. Maybe when you put in front of the Diamonds this time, they'll lighten your punishment if you act nicely!"
"I'm not going on trial again. I got out of there once, and I'll do it again. Just put Topaz down before I have to hurt you." He summoned a pair of gauntlets to emphasize his point, but that still did not worry the pint-sized commander.
"Really? Then maybe you'll be more cooperative with some incentive," as she spoke, several of the gem fighters that arrived with Aquamarine turned towards the incapacitated gem above her. The front points of the vessels began to glow as their laser cannons were primed. Both Steven and Topaz realized the situation and began to panic.
"You can't do that! She's your personal bodyguard, or partner, or something important! Homeworld won't let you get away with that!" faltered Steven as the fury he just had vanished. Topaz actually began to breathe sporadically above them, not that Aquamarine could hear it over how hard she was rolling her eyes at Steven's unwilling naiveté.
"Wow, you really ARE dense. Topaz is as disposable as almost any other gem. All it would take is a quick explanation that it was a necessary bargaining tactic and it will fly through the system without any gem raising an eye. Getting a new pair of topazes should take no effort. If you place some sort of special precedence to these two, you are as random as you are foolish. Now hand yourself over or else she becomes target practice."
All throughout her little spiel, Steven tried to find the words to convince her this was wrong. So wrong he could feel bile rising in his throat from the sheer audacity of it all, but nothing came. He could tell she was not bluffing. He could just barely hear Topaz having a panic attack at the horror of this. He could not even shed a tear since he was so consumed by paralyzing fear. For a brief instant, he contemplated surrender. If would mean Topaz's safety after all, but then he saw a glimmer of light above him. As he and several of the gems fighting behind him did the same, Aquamarine was not pleased with the distraction.
"What are you clods all staring at?! If you don't surrender this instant, I'll have Topaz blasted to nothingness!"
It was only then that she saw the cause of the diversion: a single escape pod hurtling towards the cliff above the temple at a ludicrous speed. It just barely missed the lighthouse and landed with an enormous quake that briefly brought silence to the raging conflict.
The collective question of "What the heck was that?!" seemed to occupy everyone. No one made a move, not even Aquamarine. They could not hear if anything was in the pod, but they could almost make out two figures now looking over the cliff onto the assembled gems below.
The unknown pair soon vanished from sight and both sides began to resume the fight. Before much could occur, however, a slight rumble from the massive rock face caught them by surprise. That sense of surprise grew to full-blown stupefaction when a burly green gem burst through the cliff as if it was paper several stories up and land without even flinching. On her back was a slightly slimmer scarlet gem who seemed shaken by the ride, but had a large grin showing she was having more fun than she has had in years. Steven, his attention finally leaving Aquamarine, looked utterly flabbergasted.
"Adamite?! Cinnabar?! What are you two doing here?" he shouted. Many of the others were curious as well, but the two in question seemed unusually at ease.
"We were abducted from your base by this unbearable nuisance and held captive aboard a ship in orbit. We escaped thanks to an ally of yours with superior firepower and have decided to return here."
"Hi Steven!" waved Cinnabar, "We got to steal an escape pod and then rode down a cliff! And now we can help you!"
"Help us?" asked Lapis, "I thought you wanted to assist the greatness of Homeworld or some junk like that."
"It appears your assessment of Homeworld was correct," responded Adamite with a twinge of regret in her voice, "They have become unscrupulous and consumed by hubris and illogical hatred. They sentenced the two of us for 'harvesting' for simply being outdated. I apologize for forgoing your advice, Lapis, and we have made a decision to permanently defect from Homeworld."
"Oh, so now you two are traitors, huh?!" shouted a very indignant Aquamarine, "Well fine then, we were about to drag the rest of Rose's rebellion back for shattering. By all means, go off to your certain demise with the rest of them!"
With that cue two jaspers began charging towards them with destabilizers in hand, bearing down on them with sinister grins on their faces. That expression changed once they were launched fifty feet into the air by pillars of stone and soon were shot back down by fireballs as large as they were. The Crystal Gems, while a tad wary of the two thanks to their past actions, were grateful for the assistance and found their second wind.
Pearl began nimbly dancing around her larger opponents and knocking the wind out of them with precise spear strikes. Peridot got her hands on one of the destabilizers and poofed several gems who lost sight of her thanks to her short stature. Garnet joined Cinnabar in burning many of the invaders until they receded into their cores. Amethyst and Bismuth teamed up and overwhelmed many gems with an unpredictable mix of melee styles. That left Lapis and Adamite swarming the battlefield with their respective elements. Many gems were suddenly cocooned in rock up to their necks or swept out to sea and then flopped back onto the sand by a malevolent wave. Despite the former having no memory of the two being partners, Lapis finally began to believe that they once knew each other thanks to the remarkable synergy they possessed.
While the battle raged on behind him, Steven returned his attention to Aquamarine who was still holding Topaz aloft under the focus of several gem fighters. The young hybrid feared making a single move for fear that Aquamarine would make the fatal command. Even still, his anger bubbled beneath the surface and he kept his gauntlets out and ready to pummel the tiny tyrant into submission.
"This has gone on too long. Put Topaz down before the rest of your gems fall and then the rest of the Crystal Gems will be after you." All the compassion and tenderness he usually spoke with was gone. Aquamarine merely laughed off his suggestion.
"Really? You think you're still in control of this situation?! All the years on this planet must have made you even more delusional than you already were, Rose Quartz! Even if you defeated my fleet, we'd just send even more! We have billions of troops besides me that would all gladly hand you to the Diamonds. We have an empire spanning galaxies that has grown unimpeded for eons. All you have is a microscopic group of members and a single vessel to your name. You have no chance of surviving the onslaught that will ensue is you keep putting up this defiance. Now, I will give you one final chance to surrender yourself and your fellow criminals to the mercy of the Diamond Authority or else you will all perish here and now."
Steven could only stare back at the gem. The smirk on her face had begun to irritate him more than anything else in his life. It even made Kevin seem tolerable by comparison. As he processed her speech, however, he actually found it humorous and began to chuckle.
"You know, you really need to stop jumping to conclusions. We may be small, but we've stood on our own for a long time. We're not looking to overthrow the entire gem empire. All we want is to be left alone and if you all can't accept that, then we will fight back. It may not be our first choice of solving problems, but we'll do what we have to if it means protecting this planet and each other. Now you can either leave with all your gems in tow, or this fight goes on and we win. Your choice."
The tiny commander gave the most overblown grimace Steven had ever seen upon hearing his retort. Any semblance of mercy or restraint from her was gone as she looked up to the imprisoned Topaz and felt all sense of reason vanish. All she wanted now was seeing Rose Quartz suffer. And she knew just how to start.
"Fighters! Ready all cannons on Topaz and open fire!"
The weapons began to glow with an eerie green light as the point of each of the eight ships turned their attention towards the stocky yellow fusion. Trapped with no way out and certain death, she was only one step away from blacking out under the stress. Before the firing line could blast her to kingdom come, however, a yellow spaceship came roaring down from the heavens and began obliterating each of the ships before they could even turn around to face their new opponent. Within seconds all eight of them were in shambles with the few pilots fortunate enough to survive the surprise attack running for their lives. Aquamarine was also caught up in the commotion as the shockwaves from the explosions knocked her off her feet and the wand out of her grasp. This finally freed Topaz from her confinement as she plummeted towards the ground. She could barely process what was happening but recognized that her life was saved. She began to run towards the cliff side away from the commotion of the ongoing battle. Steven, however, did not move an inch and simply smiled as the mysterious spaceship flew overhead before flying out of sight.
"Also, you should learn to look behind you," quipped Steven as Aquamarine was now left with her face in the sand.
The petite chief looked up with unbridled hatred and realized, as much as she loathed to admit it, she had thoroughly lost every advantage. She could already see Topaz running for her life and as she looked at was her fleet, all of them were totaled. Even her own ship had not been spared and was now a flaming wreck that could not even get off the ground much less return to Homeworld. She could see that the remaining troops they had were already dwindling and some were already trapped in bubbles. She could only guess how many of her troops were obliterated in the ambush.
"How…" was the only word that escaped her lips as her eyes tried to burn through Steven, "How did you get a ship that advanced?"
"I have no idea who that was, but you made it sound like someone gave you trouble in space. We don't know who's flying that, but it still helped us in the end. Even if this time was luck, though, we will keep the Earth safe. Now you can't leave the planet, but we will let the rest of your friends go."
Aquamarine literally trembled in malice as she stood up and glared at her adversary. Steven did not flinch as he merely stared back at her. Eventually their contest ended when the former looked down and seemed to start sobbing. Everyone present, even the other Homeworld gems, looked shocked as their smart-mouther leader seemed to be crying in defeat.
"Y-You're right… We've lost this," she stammered as she tried to hold her composure, "I-I suppose we'll have to wait until Homeworld sends a rescue convoy for me. W-W-We'll just go our own way and stay out of trouble." She then silently reached down for her wand and looked at it for several seconds with the same teary expression. Steven almost felt sorry for her, seeing her this dejected, only for his sympathy to vanish as she pointed her wand at him and fired the gravity beam at him. He barely summoned a bubble around himself in a panic, but still found himself trapped in a blue dome around his pink one.
"STEVEN!" shouted all of the Crystal Gems, horrified that the puny tyrant had him in her grasp. Pearl immediately ran forward to help him, but found two jaspers blocking her path. Before she could retaliate, one of them landed the destabilizer hit and forced her into her spherical white stone.
"Pearl, no!" shouted Steven in horror. Aquamarine let out a wicked laugh at his plight.
"Aw, what's the matter, Rose? You don't want your disfigured friends in trouble? Too bad! Zap all of them!"
With that command, the remaining amethysts and jaspers all sprung on the now thoroughly shaken Crystal Gems. Playing off the panic that Pearl's sudden poofing, Bismuth was caught guard by a gem behind her. Amethyst tried booking it back towards the temple but was tackled by multiple jaspers and zapped for her troubles. Peridot tried fending off as many as she could with her own pilfered destabilizer, but an enemy amethyst ripped it out of her hand and shocked her into her stone. Lapis, Adamite and Cinnabar immediately tried to turn the battle to their favor but found themselves overwhelmed as almost a dozen gems dogpiled on top of them. When the cluster of gems separated, all three were poofed as well. Garnet was the last to fall as she tried fending off about twenty gems by herself. Even with her future vision, however, she was bound to miss something. All of them rushed her at once and bludgeoned her into submission before electrocuting her down to her two base stones.
"STOP! PLEASE DON'T HURT THEM!" wailed Steven as he watched all of the gems he loved being defeated. Again, his misfortune seemed to be wonderful entertainment to Aquamarine as she had the now helpless gems lined up right outside of his bubble. One of the jaspers pulled out her flat-bladed sword and menacingly pointed at the stones in front of him. It took only a second to realize the intent and it made him sweat more than he ever had in his life.
"AQUAMARINE, STOP IT! LET THEM GO! IT'S ME YOU WANT!" He looked over to the smirking gem holding him captive and quickly saw his pleas falling on deaf ears. She ogled the gemstones as casually as someone window shopping at a boutique with the most pleasant expression on her face.
"Hm, which one should get shattered first? That abominable fusion seems tempting, but then there's that defective runt. Or what about that foolish pearl? Or those three outdated gems that should all be extinct? I simply can't decide, Rose! How about you pick which one should get obliterated! It can be the last free choice you make before Homeworld picks you up to be brought into court."
Steven could barely hear what she was saying, but what he picked up made him go to pieces. He tried to think as he choked and sobbed, grabbing his hair in stress. He was completely unaware of Aquamarine's troops making suggestions on who should die first. As he fell onto his knees in his frenzy, he felt his entire world collapse. In his depression, the bubble around him fell. He waited for the awful moment to come when Aquamarine would order for the first execution…
But it never came. Everyone involved, even the short commander herself, were busy staring at him because he was free. The gravity wand was not restraining him anymore. It took Steven finally looking up to notice their baffled expression for this new information to sink in. Once it clicked, however, his sorrow disappeared and his rage from earlier returned with a vengeance.
In the blink of an eye he summoned his spear and stabbed the jasper still looming over the poofed Crystal Gems through the neck. She was poofed instantly and bubbled by Steven only a second later. He charged forward with unheard of speed and began wailing on every gem he could find. Some tried to retaliate with weapons, but they were all parried by his shield in one hand whatever weapon he wielded in the other. He seamlessly flowed between whip, gauntlet and spear, cycling between them with barely a thought. He remained completely silent as he moved from one hapless gem to the next, cutting them down or beating them into surrender. Even when one particularly sensible jasper put down her weapon and tried to offer herself to him, Steven did not relent. He simply speared her through the torso and bubbled her like all the rest. Before long there were only four gems left, two of each kind, and tried to rush him in a desperate final move. Steven simply summoned another bubble to knock them all away once they got within hitting range. Once they were a scattered Steven went to work putting them down one by one. One amethyst was literally choked into her gem by his whip. The other was held by her hair and punched repeatedly in the face until she poofed. The first of the jaspers was held down by Steven's foot on her neck and stabbed in the face with his spear. Her fellow orange bruiser, the apparent last gem standing in her unit, left to be wailed on by Steven wearing both of his gauntlets. He sent blow after merciless blow into every point of her form until he finally knocked her into her gem with a savage punch to the face.
Aquamarine, having just witnessed the massacre in front of her, learned two very disturbing things. One of them was a crucial flaw of the seemingly foolproof gravity wand. The wand essentially created a hold on an object by completely encircling its surface area and then trapping it in a field of no gravity that could be moved and manipulated by the wielder of the wand. Steven's bubble, in turn, showed that flaw by completely covering him and thus becoming the actual target of the wand's artificial gravity. And once the bubble was dispersed, the wand's hold went with it. The other thing she learned, while less complex, was equally chilling.
Aquamarine learned what fear felt like.
Her hands were shaking, her eyes were as wide as possible, and she even began to perspire as Steven bubbled the last gem and silently turned towards her. She saw how his face was a mask of barely contained fury that was now glaring at her. In her desperation, another new feeling she discovered that day, she tried trapping Steven in another gravity trap. The fuming hybrid merely summoned another bubble and dispersed it a second after it was caught instead of him. He began slowly walking towards her, each step heightening her growing hysteria.
In her panic, she completely forgot about the wand's design flaw and tried trapping him over and over again. Each time Steven summoned a bubble to get caught in the artificial gravity in place of him and dispersed them without ever breaking his pace. He did it purely on instinct, his desire to finally end this madness pushing him forward. At long last he was only a few paces away from the truly terrified Aquamarine, looking up at him and realizing for the first time how tiny she physically was. She futilely stuck her arm out to try trapping him again, but Steven simply grasped her arm.
"Drop it. Now." His words held no argument. She, perhaps for the first time since her first moments of creation, had no comeback and complied. With the weapon laying harmlessly in the sand, Steven proceeded to grip her arm tighter. She squeaked in pain as she swore her arm was trapped under a docked spaceship and quaked even harder. Her pain grew even worse as Steven closed his other hand around her throat and began throttling. Even though he was silent once again, she could feel every ounce of vitriol as her head swam and her breath was constricted. As she glanced for something, anything that could help her, she caught sight of a motionless yellow figure staring at her.
"To…paz…" she choked in desperation. Much to her relief, caught Steven's attention as he turned to find Topaz gawking at the pair. Unbeknownst to either of them, the fusion had witnessed everything after her release from her malevolent superior. The Crystal Gem's attempted execution, Steven defeating the entire force by himself and now her boss being strangled. Her presence also brought Steven back to his senses as he suddenly felt very drained physically and emotionally. In his daze, he unintentionally dropped Aquamarine right in front of her gravity wand. She then wasted no time firing at Steven and, with his attention elsewhere, successfully captured him in a bubble of suspended gravity.
Combining the sheer panic she felt only moments ago with the satisfaction of accomplishing her goal at long last, the tiny tyrant started laughing hysterically for several minutes as Topaz looked on in horror and Steven could only frantically try willing another bubble to protect him. Alas now that he was caught there was no escape and Aquamarine finally faced her yellow subordinate with that same sneer she used to boss her around.
"Well, it looks like this insidious mission is finally over, Rose! Even after all that, you lose and your team is doomed! Topaz, go collect the fallen rebels!" Still shocked from Steven's time as a one-man battalion, the yellow fusion just stood in place until Aquamarine shouted at her.
"Hey, Topaz, you insufferable waste of space! Get whatever's left of your heads unfused and do your job! You're already looking at getting put on probation for your shoddy performance today, do I need to have you two separated to get the point across?!"
With that threat, though, Topaz indeed got moving. She slowly plodded over to the nine lifeless stones that contained the essence of the Crystal Gems. One by one she plucked them from the sand and then brought all of them in front of Steven, once again thoroughly horrified by the sight of his family on the chopping block.
"Now Topaz, is you want to keep your job and yourself intact, I suggest you start by shattering these gems one by one."
The fusion in question summoned her pugil stick and closed her eyes. Steven and Aquamarine waited for her to make the first move, but nothing came as she stood there seemingly frozen in with her weapon idly in her fingers. Aquamarine, having already lost all her patience, did not take this well.
"Is this some kind of joke, Topaz?! Have you been damaged, or should I say more damaged than you already were, you worthless clod?! Stop standing there and start swinging!"
That got Topaz to open her eyes, showing an unusual amount of anger given her stoic nature. She then took several steps back, apparently getting a running start to build momentum. She charged with impressive speed considering her bulk…
And sped right past the dormant Crystal Gems. Before Aquamarine could give her subordinate another tongue-lashing, though, she was hit full tilt in the face by Topaz. In her stumbling she dropped the wand once again and let Steven go.
"What the-?!" was all the petite flyer could manage before Topaz barreled down on her with a look of pure, unrestrained hatred on her face. Without any hesitation she raised her stick and began bashing her boss over and over again. With each blow she screamed all the thoughts she had been keeping inside for ages.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP, YOU AWFUL LITTLE MIDGET! I HATE YOU! I DESPISE YOU! I HATE EVERYTHING YOU'VE MADE ME DO! I HATE HOW SMUG YOU ARE! I CAN'T STAND HOW YOU TREAT MY LOVE AS A TOOL TO MAKE ME YOUR SLAVE! WE BOTH HATE YOU! WE HATE HOMEWORLD! AND ROSE HAS TREATED US BETTER THAN YOU EVER HAVE! WE QUIT! WE'RE DONE! WE'RE STAYING HERE! AND YOU CAN GO BACK TO HOMEWORLD AS THE FAILURE YOU ARE, YOU PIECE OF SCHIST!"
By the time she was done her rant, Topaz was breathing harder than she ever had in her life. Steven was speechless and, while proud of her taking her freedom after so much suffering, was still unnerved by the sheer brutality of it. He was still in far better shape than Aquamarine, though, as she was barely conscious and was amazed at how her gemstone was not cracked thanks to repeated blows to the face. Her entire form was throbbing in agony and she barely managed to look up at her now-former minion.
"So, it's finally come to this," she remarked, "You're going to throw away everything you had for some lousy rebellion just because one of them was nice to you? How pathetic. How do you know the others will accept you?"
"They will," assured Steven, "I know they'll treat her the same as everyone else. That's what the Crystal Gems are all about - accepting any gem who wants something different with her life. Earth can be a peaceful place where they don't have to live by your rules.'"
"Heh, you're one to talk about peace, Rose," snarked Aquamarine as she got back on her feet, "You started the only civil war in our history. Thousands of shattered gems on both sides and you're going to lecture me about peace?! You're a hypocrite and a traitor to boot."
"She's still better than you," growled Topaz as she hoisted the smaller gem by her torso and clutched her in hands.
"Topaz, I won't ever forgive you for this," swore the tinier gem, "When Homeworld hears about this, both of you are as good as shattered. Do you understand that?"
"I do," she briefly looked down at her feet, as if she was about to relent her hold on her. Aquamarine smirked internally at talking her way out of another scrape, only to find Topaz's hand squeezing her harder than ever.
"Then I guess Homeworld's not hearing from you ever again."
As she spoke through clenched teeth, she strangled Aquamarine's entire body with both hands. Only her head was free and even that felt like it was being pushed together by two boulders. Her vision began to swim as every fiber of her cried in pain. She begged Topaz to stop using every plead and command she could think of, but the fusion was finally done with her.
Steven was suitably shocked by the display but could not look away. All the adrenaline from the battle had left him leaving him weary and grateful for this whole ordeal to finally be over. Aquamarine, however, said something that caught his ear.
"Rose… I'm sorry."
"What?"
"I'm sorry…I promise…If you help me, I'll…Leave and never bother you…" she wheezed as Topaz continued her agonizing compressing.
Steven looked at her, more desperate and afraid than she has been in her entire life. Topaz still kept her eyes on her, glaring into her and wishing she would pop already. He knew he wanted to believe her, he wanted to think there was some good in her. As he recalled everything she has done since her arrival, though, a freezing chill overcame him. He unconsciously began to cry.
"No, you're not. You're lying."
"Wha-? But…I said-"
"If you meant that, you would have flown away when I dropped you. You kept on trying to attack me and my friends. I'm sorry, Aquamarine. I can't help you. I want to, but you won't let me. You have to go."
Seeing her last hope was gone, Aquamarine gave one last terrified shriek as Topaz finally forced her into her gem. She looked down at the tiny teardrop, so unassuming on its own. Topaz then pulled out her pugil stick and looked down at the stone, but not before looking at the still sobbing Steven. He spent what felt like eternity staring at the fallen gem, wrestling with himself that there was some way, any way, to redeem her, but nothing came. He finally looked up at Topaz and nodded his head. She silently brought down the point of her weapon and shattered Aquamarine. The Battle for the Temple was finally over.
And now, let us mourn the loss of such an iconic character in song. "Ding-Dong, the witch is dead..."
Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave a review!