Steven Universe and the court of Blue Diamond.
Chapter Four.
The light from the warp was still stinging at his eyes as it faded away and Steven rubbed at them to try and make them stop, a pair of hands took hold of his and gently pulled them away from his eyes. She was blurrier than normal but he recognised Pearl easily enough. "Try not to rub at them Steven, the stinging will go away soon enough."
"Thanks Pearl." Steven said with a sniff as he turned to look at where they had ended up, a gasp escaping from his mouth before he threw his hands over his mouth to stifle an excited scream at what he saw. There were so high, near the very top of a large mountain with a whole range of mountains spread out before them, when Steven looked down he couldn't see the ground, all he could see was clouds and mist.
They had to be at the top of the world, Steven couldn't see anywhere else in the world being as tall as here. He caught sight of a tiny trickle of a stream which poured down from a ridge higher up near the tip of mountain, he quickly broke away from Pearl and ran over to it, puts his hands in the stream, shivering slightly when he felt the cool water against his skin before he brought his cupped hands up to his mouth so he could drink.
The water was so cold that it made his teeth ache and the back of his throat tingle, a laugh bursting out of him. He ran over to stare down into the valley below, cupping his hands around his mouth and shouted. "Hello!" A thousand echoes rushed back up to meet him and Steven liked to think that there were a thousand Stevens in the valley below, calling up to him.
Then he felt the ground shift underneath his feet and he let out a scream as he began to plummet down, the ground suddenly looking closer than it had been and he did not like it. There were no little villages of Stevens, only long stretches of brown land and rolling hills and great crystal blue lakes that glittered in the light of the pale sun.
It was pretty, in a way but Steven was too busy screaming for his like to really take any of it in. A pair of thin arms wrapped around his waist and he glanced up to see Pearl's face, she held him tight to her chest and extended her arm upward. A thin blue line lashed out and wrapped around her wrist and just like that, Steven felt themselves being flung around and then thrown higher up into the air.
The sky was so blue up here, it was so pretty. For a moment Steven thought about how great it would be if they could stay up here forever, floating above the mountains. They began to float downward and soon enough Steven was vaguely aware that they had fallen back on to solid ground but everything seemed so far away and dream like that he still felt as though he was floating.
A collection of blurry, blue shapes stood in front of his face, it made a bunch of noises which were growing louder and louder but try as he might he couldn't bring the shapes into focus. A blurry shape that was a lighter blue hovered in front of his mouth and something cool trickled down the back of his throat and Steven realised that he was drinking some of the cool water from the stream that he had found earlier.
"Just calm down Steven, drink the rest of this and then take a breath, you're going to be alright. Holly Blue, he's going to be fine, calm down. You're going to give yourself a stress fracture." It was Pearl's voice and after a few moments of sipping at the water from her palm and breathing, the rest of the world came back into focus and everything suddenly seemed a little less scary.
"What happened?" Everything seemed so hard to think about now, he remembered the endless blue and falling but how he had ended up there had completely slipped from his mind. "I was falling, was I falling?"
"Yes, you fell off of a mountain! Oh my prince!" Holly Blue cried as she knelt in front of him and fluttered her hands all over him, like she always did when he had nearly hurt himself. Most times though, it was because he had cut himself on a broken plate or because he had tripped and fell face first on to the boardwalk when he had been running to go and get some fried pieces of heaven from the Big Doughnut.
Steven was ripped from Pearl's arms and he found himself in a hold that could crush stone, he should know he had seen her do it. A downpour of tears struck his forehead as Holly Blue held him even tighter, if that was even possible. "I thought that I had lost you! I thought that-I don't know what Sapphire was thinking and I don't care, I am taking you back to the Temple, isn't safe for you here. You aren't ready!"
"But Holly!" Steven cried out as he tried to wiggle out of her hold but he was as trapped as a worm on a hook, or a turtle on it's back or a fly on a bit of that sticky role tape or some ketchup in a squezy bottle or some peanut butter in a jar. He was that kinda trapped and it really sucked. "Sapphire said that you were going to need me! That the best possible future meant that I had to come!"
"I know she did and I don't care, you are going to go back to the temple and you are going to stay there while Pearl and I go and deal with this." Holly had shuck her head then and carried him over to the Warp Pad despite all of Steven's protests and struggles. Just as Holly was about to put him down on the pad however, Pearl spoke up.
"Holly, you can't take him back. Sapphire said that we were going to need him if we wanted this to go as perfectly as possible. Steven will be more careful from now on and I will keep a close eye on him." Steven didn't think he had ever heard Pearl talk so much, more often than not you would just get a yes or no out of her and when you didn't get that, you only got a hum. "I don't want to be the one to tell Sapphire that we are disobeying her, do you?"
Holly Blue suddenly stilled and Steven was held in mid air in her arms, he frowned when he noticed the look of uncertainty on Holly's face. If he didn't know any better, than he would say that she almost looked scared but that didn't make any sense. What was scary about Sapphire? Nothing was scary about her, that was what. Sure, she sometimes got lost when she was predicting the future and she talked so little that she made Pearl seem like a real chatter box. But that was just Sapphire being Sapphire.
Sapphire played with him whenever she had the time, she was a surprisingly viciously player at Battle Buddies Turbo and she played to win when it came to Kitchen Calamity. There was nothing scary about Sapphire. Steven couldn't ever imagine being afraid of her.
But Holly quickly spun on her feet all the same and carried him away from the Warp Pad and set him down beside Pearl and then kneeled so she was looking into his eyes. "Alright, my Prince. You can stay with us but you need to listen to me. You stay close to us no matter what happens, you do what I say when I say it, and that means if I tell you to run then you run, if I tell you to hide then you hide. Do you understand me?"
Steven put on his serious face and nodded, snapping off a quick salute and Holly sighed before standing up. "Pearl, how far away are we?" As soon as she had answered the question, the gem on Pearl's chest began to glow and a screen was projected from it. Hundreds and hundreds of numbers and words scrolled across the projection too fast for Steven to make any of them out but they soon all vanished to be replaced with what looked like a picture of the mountains.
The circular projection suddenly turned on it's side and the picture turned into a 3D map of the mountain range and suddenly a red light began to flash. "We're not that far, I'd say a five minute walk. The beacon is still transmitting." Pearl spoke quietly while Holly examined the map more closely, after a few moments she nodded and clapped her hands and the projection ended there and then.
"Excellent, then let's not stand here waiting!" Holly turned around and began to walk across the snow covered ground, with Steven following after her and Pearl bringing up the rear. The sun was shinning high above them with no clouds to cover it but even so it did little to warm him against the chilly air of the mountains and he had to rub his arms to try and fight off the chill.
They had to have been walking for at least twenty minutes when Pearl asked them to stop near a large mound of snow, and fallen stones and uprooted trees. It looked like there had been a miniature avalanche. Pearl projected the map again for a few moments and contemplated the blinking red light before shutting off. "It's here, we're right on top of it. Must have been buried when it crashed."
"When what crashed?" Steven answered but he didn't get an answer as Pearl and Holly Blue began to pick up the largest of stones and began to toss them over the side of the mountain, once all the stones were cleared away they stared to pick up the trees as well. It was as easy for them to pick all those up as it had been easy for them to pick him up.
Once all the trees and the stones had been tossed over the side, and Steven really did hope that there was no one down there or they would've been made into pancakes, only the snow was left. Holly and Pearl began to dig and Steven went over to join them, this at the very least he could do. They dug and dug and Steven wished that he had brought some mittens with him.
There was so much of the snow that they would probably be digging for hours when suddenly an idea popped into Steven's head and he quickly shrugged off his backpack and began to dig into it and pulled out a fold out trowel. It wasn't really going to increase the speed of the digging but it would mean that his hands weren't going to be cold while he dug.
He had just tossed a few shovelfuls of snow over his shoulder when the trowel blade hit something metal, the vibrations causing his teeth and bones to shake and he fell backwards and dropped the trowel. Pearl and Holly had stopped their own digging and quickly began to dig where he had been, but not before Holly had picked him up and pressed a kiss to his forehead.
Eventually enough of the snow had been removed that Steven could finally see what they had been digging for, it kinda looked like one of those clear glass capsules that his G.U.Y.S came in only this one was huge, at least as big as a car and made completely of red metal with only a little upside down triangle of glass being the only thing that wasn't metal but Steven couldn't see through it.
Holly Blue hummed and pressed her hand to the metal and then yellow and blue lines of light began to run all over the surface of the thing, sometimes crossing over with one another and overtimes turning away and running in different directions. After a few moments of waiting, the lines of light disappeared and there was a gust of released air as a circle shaped hatch popped open and a ramp extended from it.
If it had been right side up then they probably would have had to walk up the ramp but it was on it's side and thus they had to get on their hands and knees to crawl inside, Steven noticed they neither Pearl or Holly Blue made any efforts to try and get it back right side up even though together they would both probably be strong enough to do so.
It was warmer inside the capsule then it was out in the mountains but it was also pitch black and Steven bumped his head into Holly Blue once he had crawled inside. Light began to shine from both of their gems, almost like flashlights. Steven wished that he could do that but again, ever since the Hydra Worm he hadn't been able to get any of his powers working no matter how hard he had tried.
Luckily, his Dad had always taught him to be prepared and he got an actual flashlight out of his cheeseburger backpack and he added it's beam to theirs. Weirdly, while they couldn't make out most of it the inside of the capsule seemed to be bigger than the outside. Holly Blue and Pearl moved further into the capsule and Steven followed them.
Pearl sat down in a chair in front of a desk and her hands reached out towards what looked like controls. She flicked a few switches and pushed a few buttons and suddenly, so suddenly that Steven had to cover his eyes, the entire room was flooded with light. Holly Blue let out a please hum and Pearl keep working on the console.
"It looks like much of the central core was damaged during the crash but the internal dimensions are still stable, that's a good sign." Pearl reached out with a hand and brushed her fingers over the screen in front of her and Steven let out a gasp as he watched the glass ripple, like it was the surface of a pond. "A lot of the internal data has been lost, but I think I can find a damage report. Yes, here we go. The ship had been clipped by an ion blast from an Enemy vessel, it wasn't a direct hit but the damage was bad enough that if forced them down on to the surface."
"This is a Roving Eye, a scout ship mainly. They weren't used till the final days of the war, there's only one battle that it could have been damaged in and only one side it could have fought for." Holly Blue and Pearl shared a look then, a long one and Steven didn't know what it meant. But what he did know was that even if he asked, he probably wasn't going to get an answer. There was so much that they never said.
Holly broke their eye contact first and she turned her attention on to the computer thing in front of Pearl. "The beacon is still transmitting, that means that whoever crashed here, at least one of them must not have been shattered. Anything that suggested where they might actually have gone to?"
Pearl turned back to the monitor and her fingers reached out to slide into the monitor, her blue hair ruffling in the movement. "There is something, a log entry, a great deal of data was corrupted but I think I might be able to piece enough of it together. One moment." Pearl was silent then as she worked, after a moment she nodded. "I have it."
Suddenly all the monitors inside of the Roving Eye flickered on and a Gem appeared on every single screen, Steven had never seen one like her before. She was short and crimson with her hair red brown hair being sort of cube shaped. She had one eye, her gem was where the other eye show have been and there was a slight crack running down in it, she had a really grumpy looking frown on her face as well.
When she opened her mouth to speak, all that came out was a blast of static and Holly whipped her head around to look at Pearl who then nodded and reached out to the monitor and controls once again. The video started over again and while the Gem's voice was still clogged up with static, they could at least understand most of it now.
"Log Entry 17, date 220202021231352 since the formation of the Great Diamond Authority. Our ship has suffered heavy damage during the battle, captain had poofed but has since reformed." The voice was little more than a growl and Steven didn't think that it was the static that was making her sound like that. "Our engines are heavily damaged and we can not reengage them to re-join the battle."
"We will activate the distress beacon but we aren't just going to sit here and wait, once we were all accounted for and completely formed up we commenced a scan of the surrounding area and we discovered an energy signature that registered as Gem." The static started to come back then and Steven was only able to hear one word out of every ten. "We are going to investigate...facility...Diamonds...traitorous off coloured disgrace...If I could get my hands on her...Ruby signing off."
As soon as she had finished speaking, all of the screens turned to static and Pearl quickly switched them off. She spun around in the seat to look up at Holly Blue, her body was tensed up. "The facility, they went to the research facility and that's the last entry. If they never came back then that means..."
"We don't know what it means, that lab had some of the sturdiest defences on this entire planet. I highly doubt a bunch of low caste warrior gems like Rubies would be able to break through them." Holly sounded like she believed that but Steven thought that she looked kinda nervous, but he was probably just seeing things. Holly Blue was never wrong after all.
"What's the research facility?" He asked and both Holly and Pearl jumped, like they had forgotten he was there and it kinda made him mad. Sapphire had said that it was because of him that everything would turn out great, couldn't they at least try and remember that. "You guys never mentioned it before, I don't think you did at least."
Holly and Pearl shared a glance between them before Holly decided to speak. "Well, my Prince. It was a facility dedicated to research-"
Steven rolled his eyes. "Well I got that far."
"Don't be rude Steven." Pearl replied.
"Pearl don't be rude to your prince." Holly Blue replied, her voice as cutting as a knife and Pearl almost seemed to shrink backwards into her chair. The action made Steven frown and he was about to tell Holly to say sorry to Pearl when she carried on talking. "And you are right my Prince, obviously you would know what a research facility is but it was one of your Mother's, those of us that were loyal to her established several dozen of them all over the planet so that we could research...certain things that were of value to her at the time. This lab was very dear to the Great and Long Lamented Blue Diamond, may the stars burn out before our memories of her begin to fade, she often visited it to conduct some of her own personal research."
"Cool!" Steven's eyes went wide and suddenly he found that the mission was suddenly that much more important than it had been before. If this lab was important to Mom then that meant that they had to get to it, they had to check it out to make sure that everything was okay. Steven couldn't think of anything more important in that moment that making sure all of the stuff that his Mom had worked on was still all right. "What kinda stuff was she doing in there? Le Gasp, was she trying to figure out how to somehow combine puppies and kittens together with turtles to some how make the cutest critter alive while also having the shell of a turtle for defence."
"...No, my Prince. She wasn't working on that but it was something...close, to that. Kind of." Holly spoke in a way that made it clear that it was in no way, shape or form close to what Steven said. Kind of. "It was...it was just important to her, and thus my Prince it is important to us. We haven't been here in a very long time, not since your mother-"
Holly fell quiet, Pearl looked down at her hands and Steven held his arms, looking to the side. He had known what had happened to his Mom, that it was his basically his fault that she was...gone. None of them had ever said that to him, of course. But sometimes, just sometimes, he thought that he could see them just looking at him.
Holly Blue brought her hand up to her mouth and cleared her throat before she continued to speak. "At any rate, we haven't been back here in a very long time. We need to make sure that none of these clods of useless dirt managed to somehow breach one of your mother's precious sanctuaries." Holly then turned her attention on to Pearl. "Pearl, do you still have the route to the lab in your system?"
Pearl nodded and Holly smiled. "Excellent, then lead the way." Pearl nodded again and stood up from the chair and began to make her way towards the hatch, Holly stretched down her hand for Steven to talk and the two of them walked over to the hatch. Holly helping him out through hatch, lifting him up so Pearl could pull him out.
They left the ship where they found it, but Holly did say something thing about maybe coming back and salvaging it and Steven thought that would be so cool! He could just imagine himself with an admiral hat as he, Admiral Steven, set a course out for the stars with First Mate Dad, Second Mate Holly Blue, Navigator Sapphire, Ship Councillor Pearl and Tactical Officer Lapis Lazuli, seeking out new life forms both friendly and not so, becoming best friends with the friendly ones and making the unfriendly ones into friends.
He glanced up at the blue, blue sky and smiled. Yeah, one day. One day.
They followed the trail for awhile, it really narrowed in a couple of places, at one point so much that they had to almost hug the side of the mountain in order to stop themselves from falling off of it. He had to wonder how Mom had been able to mange the trail, Dad had always talked about how huge she was. The path eventually widened out again though and once it had, Steven didn't even realise that he had been holding his breath as they kept going onward.
As they kept walking on and on and on, the path kept widening out and out until eventually it was wide enough that thirty people could walk down it, side to side with their shoulders touching and there was room for even more if they squeezed tight to on another. The path began to head downwards and lead into a small valley, with the walls of the mountain on either side of them.
They walked for at least another hour and the one time that Steven complained that his feet were starting to hurt, Pearl picked him up and began to carry him on her shoulders. He rested his head against the top of hers and let out a hum as his eyes slid shut, the gentle rocking lulling him into drowsiness and he very nearly fell asleep on her shoulders and only the remembrance of how important this mission was kept him awake, though it was hard all the same.
But even though he tried to keep focused on everything in front of him, he was barely able to keep himself awake and everything was hard to focus on and he was slowly spaced out and the second time that he rested his head on top of Pearl's, his eyes did not open. The comfortable darkness welcomed him and he could hear someone singing to him, it wasn't a song that he knew but it comforted him and made him fall even deeper into the dark, he knew that he was safe.
He was gently brought back from the darkness when Pearl set him down and gently shook his shoulder, he smiled up at her and wrapped his arms around her waist in order to have a cuddle and let out a sigh. "That was a really nice song Pearl, why didn't you ever sing that one before?"
Pearl frowned when he looked up at her and then gently brought down her hand to rest on the top of his head, she gently mussed his curls as her frown turned into a slight smile. "I wasn't singing Steven, it was just a dream."
Steven frowned, that didn't make any sense. Yeah, he had fallen asleep but he was sure that he didn't dream. He had heard someone singing, he was sure of that and even if it had just been a dream, why would he dream about a song that he had never heard before? Still, right now they had more important things to do and the mystery dream and the mystery song could wait till later to be solved.
Steven raised his arms into the air and let out a groan as he stretched, a yawn slipping out as well before he turned around. Letting out a gasp as his eyes took in what he saw before him.
It was a pyramid, one of the largest ones he had ever seen and it was completely made out of some sort of black stone, but it was weird cause there didn't seem to be gaps like there would be in a pyramid made of stone blocks, it was completely smooth. The only part of the pyramid that wasn't made of stone was the very tip of it. That was made of clear glass that seemed to be shinning blue in the light of the sun. The most incredible thing though, was that there were four smaller pyramids, all the same size of a large chair floating around the tip of the big pyramid in a circle.
Holly Blue was standing in front of the pyramid, next to a large stone that was slightly taller than she was as studied the construct in front of them. Steven wanted to get a closer look and so he ran towards the pyramid but before he could go any futher than where Holly was standing she reached down and grabbed him the scruff of his neck and pulled him away. "I think not my prince, best to take it slow for a moment. Pearl, can you enter the access code?"
Pearl hummed and she stepped over to another stone which was kinda shaped like a banana, she knelt in front of it and held out her hand and once she had done so a holographic panel appeared in front of her, her long fingers danced elegantly over the panel for a few moments as she entered the code. Suddenly, the panel turned red and there was a shrill beeping and the floating pyramids stopped, not that they fell to earth but more that they simply stopped moving.
Holly frowned and brought her hand up to the back of her head and drew her whip from her gem as she stared up at the stationary pyramids and pushed Steven behind her. "Pearl, enter the right code if you would."
"I did! That was the right code, they must have gotten inside and changed it." Pearl called back from where she was kneeling next to the banana shaped stone and her hands ran over the panel. "I can get us in there, but I will have to hack through the system. The only problem is...the system is aware I entered the wrong code, it's on warning mode right now. If I entered it again, the defences will activate and engage us. The same problem occurs if I start the hack, the system will register the breach and the defences will engage us."
Holly was quiet for a moment as she studded the pyramids and then looked down at Steven before she nodded. "My prince, go and stand by Pearl. Keep her safe while she works." Steven nodded and ran over to kneel next to Pearl, watching intently as she worked. Pearl's hands stilled for a moment before she nodded and input some more commands and a shrill alarm began to sound and didn't stop.
Four hatches slid open simultaneously on each of the four pyramids and from each of those hatches extended a large silver barrels with glowing blue lights all around them that began to flicker on and off in such a rapid way that it made Steven's eyes hurt and his head ache. And then, a flash of light exploded out of one of them and Holly Blue flipped out of the way as the blast of light struck the ground, throwing up stones and dirt into the air.
As soon as Holly landed on the ground she struck out with her whip, electricity already crackling along it. As the whip struck the pyramid though, nothing happened. The floating pyramid didn't even shake and Holly pulled her whip back. Two of the other pyramids rushed past it, blasts of light cracking from their barrels as Holly dodged out of the way.
Steven covered his mouth and gasped as Holly just managed to dodge the last blast, the blast itself blew apart the rock that Holly had been standing in front of. He quickly reached out held on to Pearl. "Pearl, I really kinda think you should maybe hurry it up a little tiny bit." Steven winced as he watched Holly keep dodging the blasts, all four were attacking her now and she was barely keeping out of their way. "Pearl! Please, you've gotta hurry!"
"I am trying Steven, I never thought I would have to hack into this system. The security is very layered." Pearl didn't turn to look at him as she spoke, her fingers just kept running over the holographic screen as Holly Blue kept trying to fight them off. "The system is fighting me at every turn, it's alive and it's learning and I can barely keep up with it!"
Holly had summoned a second whip and leapt into the air with a savage cry, she landed on top of one of the pyramids and it tried to shake her off but Holly held on tight to the bottom of the pyramid as the other three turned their guns on to it. Simultaneously, all three canons fired and Holly Blue managed to jump off just as the blasts connected, blowing the lone pyramid apart.
As soon as Holly hit the ground she merged her two whips into one super long one and wrapped it around one of the big stones on the ground and with a yell she swung the stone up into the air and it hit one of the pyramids so hard that the stone seemed to bend inward, almost like it was made of metal. The pyramid sparked, jolted and then fell to the earth.
Holly turned her one whip back into and wrapped one around one of the pyramids and her other one around the other and with a cry, she swung them into one another which caused them to burst in an explosion of smoke and scrap and sparks. Holly lowered her whips and panted for a moment and Steven let out a cheer, Holly was so cool!
But then, the tip of the pyramid began to shine brighter and Steven realised that it wasn't the sun that was causing it to shine. It was shining all by itself. It grew so bright that Steven had to look away and when he could finally look back, he found himself wishing that he hadn't. There were more of the pyramids, eight more and all of them displayed their weapons.
Holly groaned and raised her weapons, readying herself for what was to come. "Pearl!" She called out as she launched herself at the floating attack drone things.
"I'm trying." Pearl called back as her fingers rapidly danced over the screen.
Holly ducked and dived in between the blasts, one just narrowly missing her. "Pearl!"
"I'm trying." Pearl hissed through gritted teeth, Steven didn't think he had ever seen any of them gems sweat before now but he was seeing it now and for the first time since the Hydra Worm had attacked, he felt really, really scared.
Holly was now hoping from the top of one of the pyramids to the other just in order to stay out of their range of fire, it looked like the trick she had pulled before wasn't working now and as soon as she landed on one it would try and flip itself over to throw her off and thus Holly had to jump to another as soon as landed on one to stop from falling to the ground. "Pearl! Hurry it up already!"
"I! Am! Trying!" Pearl screamed back as her fingers moved so fast that Steven couldn't even see them anymore, they just looked like blue blurs against the screen and Steven felt helpless as he just kept watching and Holly Blue just barely managed to keep slipping out of harm's way again and again and again but with each time, the room for mistakes slipped that little bit tighter.
Then Holly Blue made a mistake, she misjudged how big a jump it was or maybe the pyramid drone managed to move backwards slightly as she was about to land, but instead of landing on the middle of the upside down pyramid, she landed on the rim of it and Holly's eyes widened and she let out a cry as she fell backwards and down to the ground.
Steven cried out as she watched Holly collide with the ground and just lay there as the pyramid drones swopped over head like a flock of very weirdly shaped birds. They flew up high into the sky and two of them broke away and began to swoop down at Holly, their weapons already charging and Steven didn't even notice that he was running until he heard Pearl calling out for him to get back.
But he couldn't, he couldn't let them hurt Holly. Steven shrugged of his backpack and began to dig through the pockets, not even really sure what he was actually looking for. He knew that he had to find something or else Holly would die and so would he. His fingers ran over something, it felt like a string or a cord and he suddenly had an idea that probably wasn't going to work but at least he could say that he tried if nothing else.
Soon he was in front of Holly with his weapon in his hand, he could hear Holly struggling to get up behind him as well as hearing Pearl working even more desperately at the console, screaming at him to get back to where she was. The Pyramids were almost on to them and Steven threw his weapon, pulling the cord as it left his hands.
The inflatable raft expanded in mid air just as the Pyramids weapons were about to fire and it almost seemed to wrap around them suddenly there was an explosion, busting the raft and sending rubber and stone raining down to the ground like it was confetti. Steven let himself feel a moment of pride and allowed himself a grin, it didn't last though as suddenly all the other six Pyramids were swopping down on them with their weapons ready to blast them into pieces.
Holly grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him back and into her chest and Steven closed his eyes as he heard them get closer and closer and closer. But suddenly, the shrill alarm that had been going on through all of it stopped and after a few moments, and when he opened his eyes again, Steven Universe realised that he was not dead.
Holly Blue looked about as surprised as he did about the not being dead thing and it took her a couple of moments before he finally let him go. They both turned and saw that the Pyramids were floating in front of them, their guns had been withdrawn back into themselves and their hatches had slid shut once again. After another moment, there was a soft chime and all six pyramids flew up to fly around the tip of the big one.
Pearl came walking up to them then, the holographic panel was in front of her now, being projected from her gemstone and she was still hitting various commands on it. "I told you I was working on it. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, you could've hurried it up a little bit." Holly said before she caused both of her whips to disappear and brought her hand to the back of her head, running her fingers over her gem. "Not cracked, so at least there's that. But what were you thinking? Letting out prince get away from you like that? He's half human, he could have been hurt."
Pearl clasped her hands in front of her and let out a sigh, Steven frowned and was about to speak up but Pearl spoke before he could. "You're right Holly Blue, I'm sorry. I'll make sure that he won't put himself in harm's way again."
Holly closed her eyes and nodded. "Yes, very well then. You shut the defences down and that's the important thing. Now, can you get us inside? I think we have wasted more than enough time out here. I want to get in there and find out how much damage those foolish grunts have done and find if there might be anything of value."
Pearl nodded and looked down at the holographic panel once again, she let out a sigh after a few moments of examining it. "This might take me awhile, the door controls are on a different sever to the automated defences. I'll get started right now but it might take me awhile." Holly sighed and turned and walked over to the remains of all of the pyramids and began to pick through them and Steven went over to help her, giving Pearl space to work.
Most of the rubble was too damaged to be used but from the six broken pyramids that recovered six small gemstones, all different colours and different shapes and Holly quickly bubbled them and sent them back to the temple. Once they had done that, Holly took him over to a small cluster of rocks and made him recite all of the caste of warrior class gems, including the shock troop sub-caste that had been his homework.
Once he had reached Jaspers, Pearl called out to them from where she was working and there was a hiss of air and a large hatch on the large pyramid slide open, sending out a gust of cold air that made Steven rub his arms to try and keep the chill away. "I've done it." Pearl said with a smile, it wasn't a big smile but when Pearl smiled you noticed. "And the internal defences are on the same server as the external, they should be deactivated."
"Should?" Holly asked, and she did not sound happy at all.
"I'll keep an eye on them, just in case."
Holly nodded. "All right then, let's us go. My prince, stay behind me if you would. Pearl, bring up the rear." And just like that, they were soon descending into the dark with the only light coming from the gemstones of Holly and Pearl, the light of day slowly fading away as they descended deeper and deeper still into the depths.
End of Chapter Four.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, I've decide that in terms of story some of these will be adaptations of various episodes in this verse which will be expanded on and would be too big for just one chapter to be read comfortably I believe. With that said, the next chapter should be the end of this arc of the story.
If you enjoyed it, please leave a review, a follow and a favourite.
With much love,
DiscordantSymphony.