Steven Universe and the court of Blue Diamond.
Chapter Two.
After Steven and Greg had finished their pasta and they both helped Pearl with the washing up, despite the normally quiet and meek gem trying to protest, Steven found himself lying on the floor of his quarters with his legs up in the air, his feet kicking back and forth as his dad sat on the sofa, strumming at his guitar with Pearl sitting quietly next to him.
It was close to Steven's bed time, though Holly Blue had been disgusted at the idea that any of them could enforce a time on him to do something and it had actually been Sapphire who had suggested it and she was the one who had taken to enforcing it, Sapphire and Holly Blue were both still in the temple and there was no sign of Lapis.
Steven found himself wondering where Lapis was always going, she never stayed around long even though she did have a room in the temple just like all of the others did. Well, he assumed that Pearl had a room. He had never seen her go into the temple without any of the others and she was always waiting for him in his room when he came home from a long hard day of walking the town.
When he finally came into his diamond powers maybe he would ask Lapis to tell him where she was always going all the time and if Pearl didn't have quarters in the temple then he would command that she been given some, Pearl deserved that much for always being nice and looking after him and dad like she did.
For now at least, maybe he could draw a picture for her of what her room would actually look like! He jumped too his feet and ran up to the steps to his loft bedroom and quickly gathered people and some crayons, he sat down on his bed and bite his tongue as he stared intently down at the paper as he tried to consider what Pearl would like her room to look like.
Well, it would have to be blue to start with he decided. Pearl was blue and she had served his mother who had been Blue Diamond and she was friends with Holly Blue, Sapphire and Lapis all of whom were blue so it only made sense to him that blue would be her favourite colour.
Nodding at his perfect logic Steven reached out and took out a blue crayon, then he needed to decide what would fill it so he tried to think about what exactly Pearl liked. He was kinda sad to say that he had never really asked Pearl what it was she liked but Steven had known her his entire life, he could totally figure it out.
Well...Pearl liked to cook a lot, she always did it and she never complained about doing so she had to like cooking, she liked to clean up as well and to do the laundry and she always liked to play boardgames like Kitchen Calamity and Battle Boat with him and so he quickly added all these things to the picture.
He gently picked up the picture and held it reverently, it was the best piece of work he had ever done and by anyone's standards it wasn't too shabby but then he realised that it was missing something and he quickly grabbed some more crayons and quickly drew himself and Pearl standing in the middle of the room, holding hand with bright smiles on their faces, before he scooped it back up.
Steven jumped to his feet and was half way down the stairs to show Pearl and his dad the drawing when suddenly there was a massive roar and the entire ground shook, Steven let out a cry as he tumbled off of the stairs but before he could hit the floor Pearl was there, holding him in her arms.
Perfect! Now he could show her the drawing. But before he could draw her attention to it Pearl set him down on the floor and with a frown made her way to the door, stepping around the acid hole in front of it as she stepped outside. Steven frowned and tried to follow her but before he could take a step his dad was there, holding him back and shaking his head.
The door to the temple suddenly jolted open and Sapphire and Holly Blue ran out into his room, they didn't stop but Sapphire shot out a command to Greg that he should keep Steven inside the house as they rushed outside. Steven frowned at that, he was a gem too and he could help!? How else was he supposed to find his powers without them.
With a surge of speed that Steven barely know he possessed he ran for the door, leaping over the acid hole and landing outside on the deck. What he saw caused him to gasp and nearly made him want to run back inside but he stood his ground, he was a gem too. He was a gem too.
He kept repeating that as he ran down the steps to the beach so he could get a better look even as he could hear his dad breathlessly calling for him to come back.
Holly Blue, Sapphire and Pearl were standing on the beach and in front of them was the monster from the house but this one had some differences. The biggest, no pun intended but welcome, was that this one was at least forty feet tall. It's heads were big enough to swallow a city buss, it's tendrils were as long and as thick as those inflatable tube things that his dad had shown him that once stood outside the car wash he had used to own before he had lived with the Gems full time.
The finally difference about this Hydra Worm was that on top of it's middle head was a round, green gemstone.
"Where is Lazuli?" Holly called out as she summoned her weapon, staring up at the monster with what Steven might have thought had been fear if not for the fact that he knew that Holly Blue was never scared of anything, she always managed to beat the monsters away in the end.
"She'll be back soon, but Holly. I think we might have too-" Whatever Sapphire was going to suggest Steven never got to find out as Holly let out a cry of revulsion that almost drowned out the Hydra Worm's roars.
"Absolutely not, I refuse to do that. Do you hear me? I refuse!" Holly's gem glowed again and she pulled another whip out of it and for a heart stopping moment Steven thought that she might actually attack Sapphire, Sapphire clearly thought so as well as she held her hands up and took a step back.
Holly glared at Sapphire but then another roar from the colossal monster seemed to bring her back to her senses as she turned her gaze to it. "We do this the old fashioned way, Pearl, draw it's attention. Sapphire, try and freeze it as much as you can. I'll hang back and wait for an opening."
"What can I do?"
"Well, my prince you can-My prince!?" Holly was so shocked to see him that she didn't see the massive tendril coming swing down at them. If it weren't for Pearl's quick reflexes then the two of would've been made into a Holly Blue and Steven flavoured pancake. Sapphire rushed over to them as Greg ran up as well.
"I thought I asked you to keep Steven inside?" Sapphire hissed and though her voice had not raise there was a clearly steely note in her voice as she turned her head to look at Greg. Greg robbed the back of his sheepishly, looking more scared of the gem that was barely taller than his son then he did off the giant gem monster.
"The kid's faster than he looks." Sapphire shook her head, Holly looked like she was going to have a break down and Pearl simply pointed at Steven and then back up at the house. Greg nodded and scooped Steven up despite his protests, once they had reached the steps Steven could hear the gems charging into battle.
As they reached the deck, before his father could take him back inside Steven leaped free from his grip and ran over to the railing, though he didn't attempt to go back down to the beach as he knew his dad would follow him and he didn't want him getting hurt so he contended himself to watching as the gems kicked some but.
Pearl was doing as Holly had asked her to do, drawing the Hydra Worm's attention as it throw it's tendrils down at her to try and smash her into Pearl Paste. She ducked and danced gracefully and avoided the Worm's blows but sometimes only by a couple of inches either way, her glaive was in her hands and when a tendril landed close to her she tried to slice at it but the skin was too thick for the weapon to puncture or cut through.
Sapphire was hanging back, using her super speed to keep head of the tendrils. She only stopped once or twice to shot a beam of freezing light out of her gem but most times it just seemed to bounce off of the monster. When a ball of acid landed at her feet however she managed to duck back before she was hurting and used her freezing beam to seal one of it's jaws shut, Steven let out a cheer when he saw it even as his dad tried to pull him back inside.
Holly had combined her two whips into one, meshing them together in a glow of light so it could reach the Worm from where she was standing, her super long whip didn't seem to be do much damage however, even the electricity that channelled through it didn't seem to be doing much.
The Hydra Worm was clearly getting irritated, it threw it's middle head back and let out a roar as the gem on top of the head glowed with a sickly green light. Suddenly the entire Worm was glowing with the same light and right next to Sapphire a similar glow was appearing, Steven went to shout out a warning but it wasn't needed as Sapphire turned and ducked away as another Hydra Worm, the same size as the one that had been in the house and like that one had no gem, appeared on the beach.
The big one was still growing and more little ones were suddenly appearing, soon the beach seemed to be infested with the monsters. Three were approaching Holly Blue who was using her whip to try and hold the little ones off like a lion tamer trying to hold back some very, very dangerous lions.
Sapphire was trying to out run three that were right on her tail and Pearl was practically surrounded by them, swinging her glaive at any that came to close to her. All the while the true Worm stood tall above them all and it let out a chocked sound that almost sounded like laughter as it spat acid out of the two mouths that it could still use and swung it's tendrils down at the Gems who were just barely avoiding them as well as the little ones.
Suddenly, two chains made of water burst out of the ocean and wrapped around the long body of the Worm, holding it steady. Four more chains burst out of the ocean and wrapped around some of the Worm's writhing tendrils, holding them as best as they could and Steven cheered and he could hear his dad cheering with him as they both spotted Lapis hovering in the sky.
And just like that, the tide seemed to change. Holly was back to wielding two whips which she used to sent large jolts at the smaller worms, poofing them easily. Sapphire was now chasing the ones that had been chasing her, sending her icy beams at them as they ran and Pearl was slicing through the one that had surrounded her, poofing them like they were nothing as her glaive sliced through their necks and their chests.
But just like that, it all went wrong again at the worm shoot out one of it's free tentacles at Lapis, sizing her around the middle and throwing her face first towards the temple. Steven watched in horror as Lapis tried to flap her wings but she had been thrown to fast and so Lapis collided with the cliff face and limply fell to the beach.
The chains fell away and simply dissolved back into water, the Worm, now completely free once more, swung out with one of it's tendrils in a wide sweeping motion, clearly not caring it if hit it's copies or not. Pearl managed to dodge but Holly Blue and Sapphire weren't as lucky and both were sent flying.
Pearl stood alone but before she could do anything a tendril slammed down on to her, Steven gasped and icy needles stabbed him inside of his stomach but as the tendril was pulled back he felt slightly relived to see that Pearl was trying to get back up to her feet. The feeling did not last long however as the tendril came slamming back down on to her, once it was pulled back another came down on to her and then another and another and another.
Steven was going to be sick, he couldn't watch this. Before he knew what he was going he sized on to the railing and hurled himself over. He could hear his dad screaming his name as he landed and Steven know that he should have been injured falling like that but the fall itself seemed to have happened in slow motion and at the minute he didn't care.
At that moment nothing mattered except getting to Pearl.
As he ran towards her the Worm pulled it's tendril back and raised it up higher than it had ever done it before and Steven got the feeling that this was going to be the finish blow, he could hear people calling at him. His dad, Holly Blue, Sapphire and Lapis who were all trying to get him to go back but he barely heard them.
He jumped in front of Pearl's limp body and held his arms wide, doing his best to shield her from the monster. Staring up at it he spoke calmly. "You aren't going to hurt her, I won't let you."
The monster let out that terrible chocking laughter again and stopped raising's it tendril. The extremity seemed to hang motionless in the air.
"You are not going to hurt Pearl."
The tendril swung down and Steven shut his eyes tight as he heard his Dad, Holly, Sapphire and Lapis screaming his name and Pearl's hand trying to pull him behind her so she would take the worst of the blow.
"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HURT PEARL!" He screamed as loud as he could as he waited for the blow to land and the pain to come. But the pain never came.
He opened his eyes and his belly felt warm, the entire area seemed to be bathed in a blue light as he looked down and saw that it was coming from his gem. The Hydra seemed to be swaying back and forth, almost like it was in a trance, it's tendrils pulling back and hanging limply at it's sides.
"What?" Lapis asked in disbelief as she staggered forward, her eyes wide in disbelief.
"It can't be." Sapphire said with a voice filled with pure shock as she pulled her hair aside and Steven knew she was trying to see any future where she for saw this?
"My diamond?" Holly asked as she held her hands in front of her mouth, her eyes beginning to water.
"Blue?" His dad asked with tears in his eyes
"Steven?" Pearl whispered.
Steven said nothing as he stared up at the creature, he had done this. He had finally done it! He had learned how to use his Diamond powers! A determined look came on to his face and he quickly pointed his finger at the monster and said in a cool voice. "Poof."
The worm monster did not poof, in fact at that point the light resided into his gem and in a matter of seconds the monster came out of the trance. Steven stared up at it for a moment before the familiar feeling of a thin arm wrapping around his middle and pulling him away from the monster brought him out of his own trance.
"Lapis! Now!" Holly screamed and Lapis nodded as she raised her hands and as her hands raised to the sky and her gem glowed a large bubble of water lifted out of the ocean and hovered over the still slightly confused Worm Hydra for a moment before Lapis let it drop and the monster became socked.
Not wasting a single second Holly rushed forward and lashed out with her electric whip at the puddle that formed at the bottom on the monster's body. It let out a shriek of pain and electricity danced and crackled over it's entire body but it still did not poof.
Lapis was there again however and she used her power to raise what looked like a spiral staircase up into the sky, Sapphire strode forward and used her power to freeze it completely solid. Pearl gave him one last hug before turned and ran for the new ice sculpture in the middle of the beach, running all the way to the top and leaping off it and with a great swing of her glaive the monster disappeared with a great poof.
Pearl landed on the beach with the round green gemstone safe in her hands, a light blue bubble surrounded it before she pressed down on to top of it, making it disappear with a pop. Steven knew that he should be glad that the monster was gone and no one was seriously hurt and he was.
But now it seemed like he had lost everything, he had found out that he did have powers and now he didn't know how to use them and he couldn't command a gem monster to poof if it was attacking them. He let out a heavy sigh and fell on to his behind, tracing his fingers through the sand as he did so.
"What's wrong bud?" His dad asked as Steven heard him approaching.
"It's just...I worked so hard and nothing, then when I finally manage to get something working I mess it all up. As soon as I told the monster too poof nothing worked anymore and it broke out of it's trance." Steven heaved out a heavy sigh. "I just messed it all up."
"Steven." Sapphire spoke calmly and Steven turned to look at her, she hadn't pulled her hair back so Steven could look into her one round eye. "We don't know what you are, there has never been anything like you before and it is doubtful that there ever will be again. We don't know how all of this works yet, but you did not screw up."
"You saved my life Steven." Pearl spoke as she knelt in front of him and pressed a kiss to his forehead.
"And that is not nothing." Lapis spoke out with a wide grin.
"I always knew that you could do it my prince, it was just a matter of time." Holly Blue said with her eyes shut and a self assured smirk, as though she had always know that this would happen.
A large hand came down on to his hair and Steven looked up to see his dad smiling down at him. "I am proud of you bud."
Steven felt his eyes burning and he realised that he was probably going to cry when he suddenly remembered, he let out a cry and told them all to stay where they were as he ran for the house and came back out with his drawing. He panted for air as he arrived back outside and stood in front of Pearl. "Do you like it?" He asked as he handed her the drawing.
Pearl stared down at it for a few moments saying nothing but then she surged forward and sized him in a bone crushing hug, Lapis and his dad then joined in with Sapphire following after them with Holly Blue following in at the end though not without grumbling that this was unbecoming behaviour.
Steven sighed as he decided to stay in the centre of the cuddle pile for awhile, this was the life.
End of Chapter Two.
Please follow, favourite and review if you enjoyed this chapter, just a note that some chapters will be based on episodes with their own twists and some will be wholly original ideas that occur do these being different characters.
With much love,
Doctorwhofan12345.