What's this? Lazuli actually updated this story again? Yes I have, and I hope you enjoy. I made it a little longer than I usually do to make up for taking so long. Enjoy!
Steven was standing in the Burning Room and was holding the bubbled Centipeedle in his hands like the many times he had before. He was ready to try again
He had to wait until nightfall in order to sneak into the Burning Room so as to not alert the gems of his work. He also had to wait until Connie fell asleep watching Under the Knife because he didn't want her to know either. She'd want to help and if she did, she would get hurt. That would be the last thing he would want to happen. Luckily Connie didn't take long to pass out, so Steven saw his chance and quietly snuck away.
Steven sighed to himself. "Let's try this again." He popped the bubble and caught the gem before it hit the ground. Then instead of licking his hand and squeezing the gem he just licked the gem itself directly, making sure he coated the entire gemstone in a thick layer of saliva. Then he waited for any results. After a few minutes of waiting the gem began to glow, signifying that the Centipeedle was about to reform. Steven set the gem down and slowly backed away in case the creature was in an aggressive mood. The Centipeedle's form took shape and a few seconds later it was fully reformed in it's corrupted form. It was awake.
The Centipeedle seemed surprisingly calm and stable this time, nothing like it's spooked demeanor like last time. It didn't move much except to turn it's head occasionally to observe it's surroundings.
Steven took a step towards the beast cautiously. "Hey there little buddy."
The Centipeedle turned its attention to him and its single eye widened but it remained calm. Things were going well.
Steven picked up his pace and walked over to stand right in front of it and held his hand out to touch its soft white mane. He gently stroked it and ran his fingers through it and the Centipeedle scooted closer and seemed to purr at his petting.
"There we go," he said soothingly. "Do you remember me?"
The Centipeedle responded with some kind of cackle.
"Okay, I'll take that as a yes. Now hold still, I'm going to try to heal you." He licked his hand and was about to touch the Centipeedle's gemstone, but it growled and reared back from him, its mane starting to rise.
"No no no, I'm not going to hurt you," he assured. "I would never hurt you. I promise."
The Centipeedle continued to freak out for a minute but eventually it calmed down and went back over by Steven so he could work his magic.
"That's better. Now hold still and this terrible nightmare of a form will be gone in a second," he said, really just trying to assure himself more so than the creature. He took his spit-covered hand and put it against the beast's gem.
The Centipeedle immediately pulled away and began completely freaking out, startling Steven and causing him to fall. He crawled away in fear as he thought it was about to attack him.
Instead of closing in for the kill the Centipeedle just stood there and just ceased its panic attack. It didn't move and it wasn't doing anything, it just froze. Steven stared at the monster in both fear and confusion, completely weirded out by its spastic behaviour. He had never seen it do anything like this before.
Then for no apparent reason the Centipeedle just poofed. The gemstone fell to the ground with a clink and then all was still.
Still terrified by the events that just transpired Steven just sat there on the ground and stared and the gemstone, waiting for something to happen.
Then something did happen.
The Gem began to glow once more and the Centipeedle's money or form began to reform. Then it suddenly stopped and was replaced with something else. As it took shape Steven realized what it was with a gasp.
It was a new form. And it was a humanoid shape.
Steven watched in awe as the humanoid shape continued to form until it was completed and the bright glow died down, revealing the fully formed Centipeedle.
She was beautiful. Her skin tone was like a dark yellow-green color like her acidic saliva, she has wide pearl coloured fingernails, and she had long and thick white hair that reached all the way down to her ankles like Jasper. She wore a tight black sleeveless vest and black shorts that only went down a few inches past her knees, tactical military pads on her elbows and kneecaps, black combat boot that didn't have laces, and dark grey leather bracers on her wrists. Her gem was located on her left shoulder, and she had piercing green eyes. In Steven's view, she was beautiful.
Then she collapsed.
Steven gasped and ran over to her side where she layed on the grown in a daze, her one eye glazed over in a confused look. He shook her arm like he was waking her up and was calling out to her to bring her back to reality.
"Centi? Centi are you okay? Your safe now, you're okay," he said, continuing to so shake her.
After a few more minutes of shaking and talking to her she suddenly sat up, so fast that it startled Steven a bit. She turned her head and looked over at him, locking eyes with him and just staring at him with an expressionless look on her face.
"D-do you remember me?" He asked nervously.
She blinked a few times, then looked down at her new form with wide eyes before looking back to Steven. Then she spoke.
"What happened?"
"You became Corrupted," Steven answered. "You've been a monster for...a very long time."
"I don't remember becoming Corrupted. But I remember you."
"Really? What all do you remember?" Steven asked, curious as to what she remembered and anything she would tell him would be helpful.
"I remember being in a Corrupted form when I met you," she started. "You were really nice to me and you tried to heal me right?"
"Yes! Yes, I was trying to cure your Corruption, and it was working." Then Steven frowned, recalling when the Centipeedle freaked out and almost got him and the gems killed in that ice cave, but the Centipeedle saved him only to get poofed by a fallen stalagemite. That was the day he promised to come back for her and keep trying to heal her, no matter what. "Until..."
"I was poofed. I save you," the new gem said. "And then I remember...you kept trying again to heal me. Over and over you tried, but it never worked. Until now."
"Yeah, I guess I finally-" he was cut off and taken by surprised when she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in for a warm hug.
"Thank you," she whispered in his ear.
After his initial surprise he returned the gesture with a hug of his own, grateful he was finally able to help cure his friend. There they sat there for a minute in each other's arms until the gem suddenly pulled away, startling Steven.
"What's wrong?" He asked frantically, hoping he didn't mess something up between the two.
"There were other gems with you, I remember them now. Where are they, we must tell them of you curing me. Where are they?"
"There here in this temple, in a different room, but I don't think it's a good idea for you to see them," he said.
"Why? I promise I won't hurt them, I'm not Corrupted anymore, I'm-"
"Whoa whoa slow down. It's not you, it's them. They would probably attack you since you're new, and you were only cured a few minutes ago, they'd be suspicious of you," Steven explained.
"Oh. Then what should we do?"
"I don't know, I just still can't believe I've finally healed you after all this time. This is incredible!" He exclaimed.
"I'm shocked as well. No one's ever been cured of Corruption in the history of the Diamond Hierarchy. What you've done is no easy feat, you've just made history Steven."
"Well okay, I'm a beast!" He said, standing up and throwing a fist in the air.
The Gem also got up, giving him a confused face. "You're not a beast, you're a human. Why would you say that?"
"Huh, oh! No that's just a figure of speech. I'm just saying I'm awesome," he said, chuckling a little from her confusion.
"Oh okay," she said. "So...now what?"
"Well first we should properly introduce each other. My name is-"
"Steven, I remember your name. My name is Jade."
"Jade, that's a pretty name. I like it," Steven complimented.
"Thank you," Jade said. She looked around the room they were in as if she'd never been there before. "Where am I?"
"You're in the temple," Steven answered, finding it strange that she didn't recognize her old home. "Did you not live here during the gem war?"
"During? It never ended Steven," she said. "Speaking of which I need to get back to my ship, my crew's probably going crazy without their captain."
"You're a captain!? That's so cool!" Steven exclaimed excitedly. Then what she just said set in and his excitement soon became confusion. "Wait, what do you mean it never ended? The war ended a long time ago, your crew were probably corrupted and put into one of these other bubbles here." He gestured towards the countless bubbled gems floating in the Burning Room.
Jade once again observed the room, somehow completely missing all of the bubbles with her first look at the room. Then she turned to Steven and asked, "How long ago did the war end?"
"Umm, I think one of the Gems said it ended about 5,600 years ago."
"What!? And I'm still stuck here on Earth? I can't believe we lost this 1,000 year war only to be trapped here forever." Jade stomped on the ground in frustration and crossed her arms in an angry manner.
"Hey it's okay," Steve said reassuringly. "There's still a few of the Crystal Gems left, so you're not alone here. And you've got me." He flashed her one of his affectionate grins everyone loves. Instead of seeing the reaction people gave him when he did that Jade gave him a look of disbelief and shock at the same time. "What's wrong?"
"Did you say there are still a few Crystal Gems here?"
"Yeah, why?"
She didn't answer immediately. Instead she looked away from him, trying to avoid answering him. "Nothing."
"It's okay, you can tell me," he said reassuringly. "I can keep a secret."
She looked back at him and Steven was surprised by her saddened expression. "If there are any Crystal Gems left, and I'm still on Earth, then that can only mean one thing."
"What's that?" He asked.
Jade hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breathe and said, "Then we've lost the war."
"Why is that such a bad thing?" Steven asked, confused by her words. "I thought the Crystal Gems winning the war was a good thing."
"Steven, I forgot the Crystal Gems during the Rebellion," she said. "I'm a Homeworld Gem."
"You guys actually think they'll come back? After all these years?" Asked Amethyst.
The Gems were discussing the dire situation outside of the house on the porch so they wouldn't wake up the kids with their conversation.
"Yes what do,"Pearl answered. "In fact it seems that they've already arrived somewhere here on Earth already. Like we said, the communication hub has been tampered with at some point and it appears someone's been working on restarting the Alpha Kindergarten."
"And there's been recent sightings of a large spacecraft of extraterrestrial origin just outside of Earth's atmosphere by world governments," Pearl added.
"Well what do we do? We can't hold off an invasion if Homeworld were to attack. There's three of us guys, come on. How can we fight back?"
"Well regardless of whatever we do to try and defend ourselves," Garnet said. "We're already at a huge disadvantage since Homeworld has developed such advanced technology since the Rebellion. Just look at all the tech we've seen Peridot by herself use as long as she's been here. Nothing on Earth can withstand against anything Homeworld has. It's an impossible fight."
"Are you hearing yourself? You both fought a war against Homeworld that I'm sure was believed to be an impossible fight, and look how it went! You won. Earth was saved and Homeworld left. How can you just sit there and give up before anything even happens? You call yourself guardians of the Earth, when really you're both just a bunch of cowards-" Amethyst ranted on, which was very much unlike her, especially when Garnet was present.
"How dare you question our intentions like that?" Garnet said, fists clenched, teeth gritted. "Do you really think we wouldn't fight if we could? You don't know what we've been through during the war, and you don't know all of the reasons this situation has us terrified. Don't you ever-"
"Don't ever what!?" Amethyst screamed back. "So now I'm the bad guy for wanting to protect my home? You seem to forget that I never knew what living on Homeworld was like, and I don't care what it was like because this is my home. Earth is my home, home to the billions of humans here, and home to what's left of the Crystal Gems. And don't forget this was Rose's home too, do you really want to break your oath to her of protecting and defending this planet at all costs? Will you really go that far?"
"Do you have a plan Amethyst?" Asked Pearl in a rude manner. "Do you have some complex and thought-out plan to somehow magically destroyed hundreds of thousands of Homeworld warriors within an instant? I seriously doubt that you even have the brains to do something like that anyhow."
"Oh so now I'm too stupid to do anything right? You wanna play that card? Fine by me. At least I knew how to move on after Rose died. Me! The emotional one! And you? All you ever did was lash out at me and Garnet and blame Greg for her death. You even blamed little Steven at the time he was born. A baby! Don't pretend like you're just little miss perfect all the time and I'm just a complete mess when really your the one who needs to clean your act up and-"
"ENOUGH!" Garnet shouted, immediately ceasing Pearl and Amethyst's arguing. "What's gotten into you two? Amethyst, quit reopening old wounds and show some self control this instant. Pearl, Amethyst is right, we can't just give up before the fight begins or we won't have a chance of winning. Both of you swear to me you'll stop butting heads at every corner and you'll start working together for once so we can protect the Earth from invaders and keep the citizens safe. Swear to me right now, both of you."
Neither of them said anything to each other, they just started daggers at each other, teeth gritted, fists balled. That was the last straw for Garnet. The infuriated fusion summoned her gauntlets, grabbed both of them in each hand and slammed them together in a hard and loud headbutt against one another, then threw them to the ground in a fit of pure rage. The two gems gripped their heads in pain as tears immediately began flowing from their eyes from both the pain and the fear coursing through their bodies.
"SWEAR TO ME THIS INSTANT!" She snarled.
"We swear! We swear!" They cried out in unison.
"You better swear, or so help me I'll-" Garnet suddenly stopped and she got quiet, her aggressive behavior being replaced with a look of concentration as if she were trying to solve some puzzle. Or if she was seeing something with her future vision.
"What's wrong?" Pearl asked.
Garnet didn't seem to hear her, so she repeated herself before Garnet spoke again
"It's nothing, don't worry about it. You two, go to your rooms and don't come out until it's daytime tomorrow. Now."
Without another word the two teary-eyed gems went into their rooms, the feeling of the events that just happened still fresh in their minds and bodies. Garnet went over to the railing of the porch and leaned on it, staring into the starry night. Despite the beautiful night she was viewing, her mind was muddled with conflicting emotions and hidden pain even her split counterparts kept from each other. She needed to unravel, she needed to unravel within the solitude of her own room within the temple. She proceeded to her own room and she went and sat on a silk mat in the the center of her dark and empty room and began to meditate.
At first it seemed like meditating for a few minutes began to camp her nerves down, the voices in her head settling down as she entered her mindscape, as she showed Stevonnie once. Meditating seemed to be working, until the voices returned and the emotions hit her like a locomotive, and just like that Garnet came undone. In Garnet's place were Ruby and Sapphire, and you could tell the current situation and what just happened had really taken a toll on both of them.
Sapphire was silently crying to herself and covering her eye with her hands as to hide her tears from Ruby, but Ruby was even worse. Ruby was loudly and uncontrollably bawling, her eyes acting as burning, rushing waterfalls that seemed to have no intention of ceasing.
"What did we just do?" Sapphire asked, mainly to herself.
"We went too far this time," Ruby answered. "We hurt them, we scared them, we made them actual fear for us."
"Should we just give up? Is the situation really as hopeless as it seems? You're the one with future vision."
"I can't see. I can't see anything, and I'm not sure if I want to see it."
"What do we do? We can't just let Homeworld invade us like that, we have to fight."
"Of course we do," Sapphire said, wiping her tears away. "We have to, even if the odds aren't in our favor."
"And what about Steven?"
"Simple. We don't tell him anything yet. We just have to spend as much time together as possible before they come to Earth. We need to use the little time we have left to make sure he enjoys his last days."
"You sound like you have no hope whatsoever," Ruby commented miserably.
"Ruby, it doesn't take future vision to see the outcome of an invasion."
They grew quiet after that last sentence, and the only sounds between them were a chorus of hiccuping and silent sobbing. Then after a while of uncomfortable silence Ruby said with a smile "Well look at the bright side. At least we'll be remembered in Homeworld's history books."
Sapphire remained silent.
Ruby frowned. "Come on, where's my laughy Saphy?"
"You know, what you just said actually is funny." Sapphire looked at her. "But I just don't feel like laughing right now."
"If you're really a Homeworld Gem, then you have to kill me."
"What!?" Jade said, completely stunned by his sudden words.
"You heard me," Steven said. "I am a Crystal Gem, and my entire family are Crystal Gems as well. You have to kill me, and you know it."
"N-no, I won't do it. The war's over, I have no reason to fight you or your family, whatever that is."
"You're sure? You don't want to kill me or my Crystal Gem friends?" Steven asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I mean no one harm, I swear."
"Then okay then."
"What was up with you wanting me to kill you?" She asked in a confused manner.
"Because you're a Homeworld Gem," he answered. "I thought you would pretend to be my friend until you met my friends, then you'd try to kill them. In fact some of my friends were Homeworld Gems and they did try to kill us, but they converted and become Crystal Gems too."
"They converted? What made them do that? Did you threaten them with being shattered if they didn't join you?" Jade asked.
"No. They just lived with us for a while and then they saw how much they liked living here."
"Do you think I could convert?"
Steven was surprised by her eagerness to join them. "Why would you want to convert?"
"Well..." She trailed off. "I wasn't happy being a Homeworld. I wanted to become a Crystal Gem and join Rose Quartz's rebellion, but..."
"It's okay, you don't have to tell me," Steven said. "You can join us."
"Thank you," Jade said graciously. "Now take me to your leader, I must meet Rose Quartz in person."
"Yeah, about that..there's something you need to know first."
So Steven took the next few minutes or so to explain what happened to Rose Quartz and that Steven was a gem-hybrid, the first of his kind. Then he explained what a family was and he told her about his father and Connie and all about the citizens of Beach City. After all that, he explained why she wouldn't be able to meet any of his family yet and why he was keeping this a secret family for now. After everything had been thoroughly explained to her so she would understand, she spoke.
"So you've been trying for months to heal me of my Corruption? And I'm the first one you've been able to heal?"
"Exactly," Steven confirmed.
"And if you have Rose Quartz's gem, can you use her shield?"
Steven answered her by summoning his shield and showing it to her.
"Oh wow," she said in amazement. "It's more beautiful than I could have ever imagined."
"Yeah, it's cool," he said as he dismissed it. " Plus I can throw it like a discus and it comes back to me. And I also have floating powers. When I'm really happy I can float and when I think bad thoughts I can descend, sometimes really hard. What's your weapon?"
Jade smiled. I'll show you." She reached into her gem and summoned a handle of a weapon. Then she quickly pulled it out with a cool-sounding swoosh and revealed to be a 7 foot one-sided sword with an olive colored handle and a transparent jade colored blade.
"Whoa!" Steven exclaimed with stars in his eyes. "That's so cool!"
"Why thank you Steven," she said, dismissing her sword. "I thought you'd like it."
"I can't wait to tell Connie about this, she's learning how to become a swordsman," Steven said excitedly.
"I'd like to meet this Connie person, she seems nice," Jade said. "It's a shame that I can't meet her or any of your family yet though."
"Yeah, but at least we'll have alone time each other without interruption," he said, looking at the bright side of this current situation.
Jade smiled at the thought of spending time with her new friend and learning more about him and this planet she would live on for a while at least. "That sounds fun. So..." She trailed off, looking at the rest of the bubbles gem mutants that have her to be healed. "When do we start with the others?"
"Huh? You want to help me heal all the others?" Steven asked. "I thought it would just be me healing them."
"Well I know first-hand what it's like to be Corrupted. I could assist you."
Steven thought for a minute to himself, then smiled eagerly and said "Yeah, that could work! Alright, you can help me!"
"Okay then, lets start with this one." Jade reached for a bubble that contained an orange gem. Before she popped it Steven realized who the gem belonged to and quickly yelled "Not that one!"
Jade stopped herself and let the bubble float out of her grasp. "What's wrong?"
"That one is a Homeworld Gem I watched become Corrupt," Steven explained. "And she was trying to kill me even before that happened because she's a current Homeworld Gem. Her name is Jasper. It would be best not to start with her, at least until I get better at healing gems."
"I understand," she said. "Leave that one alone at all costs."
"Yep, you got it." Then Steven once more remembered his sleepover with Connie. "Well, actually I should leave so none of my friends get suspicious. It's nighttime right now and Connie's sleeping in my room, but the gems don't sleep, so I should leave and pretend to be asleep. I really don't want them knowing about this."
"I understand, does that mean I have to stay here?" Jade asked.
"Yeah I guess so. I hope they don't come in here and notice your not bubbled anymore."
"Wait I have an idea," Jade said. "Us Gems don't need to be injured to retreat into our gemstones. We can do it manually, so you can just bubble me again. You can bubble gems, right?"
"I sure can. That's a great idea. Well, I guess this is goodbye for now," Steven said, sounding a little sad.
"Goodbye Steven. I look forward to seeing you again."
And in a flash of bright green light Jade retreated back into her gem. Steven reacted quickly and caught her gem before it hit the floor. He then bubbled the green gemstone in one of his Rose Quartz bubbles and let it float our of his hands to join all the others he had to heal.
"Goodbye Jade," he whispered quietly. "I will return to you. I promise."
Deep within the walls of the temple in her room, Amethyst was definitely taking the argument hard. She was lying at the top of one of her junk piles under a blanket, crying silently to herself as if she was afraid someone would see her and think she was weak. Which she already was according to Peridot, but nonetheless she still decided to hide her tears like she always tried to do.
Amethyst just couldn't get it. Yes, her and Pearl generally didn't get along well sometimes, but she always had a reason for her constant sarcasm and her reckless behavior. She always had reasons, some known and some hidden, but it seemed like they were always the wrong reasons when someone discovered what they were. She's trying her best to live up to Pearl and Garnet's expectations, but in the end all her efforts and attempts lead to nothing more than destroyed relationships and more pain that all she could do with was bury deep beneath herself and hope that it would never resurface.
But it always did.
Eventually Amethyst just stopped trying to be as good as those around her, but that yielded the same results as when she did try. What's wrong with her? Why couldn't she do anything right, no matter what she did? Times like this are when Amethyst missed Rose the most. Rose loved Amethyst unconditionally for who she was and told her to never try to be someone else. Rose made her feel valued and loved, and never criticized her for just being herself. She never had to change anything about her behavior or conform to a standard for Rose. Rose was the only person who ever cared about Amethyst because she was...Amethyst.
Then whenever Amethyst thought about Rose, she thought about the times when her and Pearl actually did get along all the time. They cared for one another like sisters do and nothing could separate them. Even Garnet was closer to her than she was now, and she didn't treat her differently, she just...changed somehow. Yes, the four of them were unnaturally close with each other and nothing in the entire universe could break that bond.
Except, almost cruelly ironic, a young man named Greg Universe.
Ever since Rose met Greg they had spent more and more time with each other, often leaving behind the gems she claimed to love so deeply. Amethyst decided that's when things went downhill. Pearl soon grew jealous of Greg's onslaught of affection from Rose, and as result she grew bitter towards others, specifically Greg, Garnet, but most of all towards Amethyst. Amethyst understand Pearl's pain, what with being created only to serve those above her, she felt like she always had to be the best at anything she did, a mindset that she still uses even today. Plus the fact that Pearl had actually fallen madly in love with Rose didn't help. At that time Amethyst guessed that she was an easy target for Pearl, thus explaining why she always got the brunt of Pearl's criticism and spite. Then Rose all of a sudden announces she's giving up her physical form to have a child? That was the last straw. Pearl's treatment of Amethyst was so horrible that Amethyst actually started to hide from her just to avoid her wrath. It was terrible, and even though you wouldn't know it from looking at her, but Amethyst is still slightly terrified of Pearl, even though her treatment has grown substantially better. Still though, Pearl and Amethyst were so close at one time, and within the blink of an eye all that love between them vanished.
These thoughts made Amethyst feel even worse than she already was. Her silent cries soon became loud sobs that echoed throughout the room. She didn't care if someone heard her anymore, all she wanted was for someone to tell her how to fix everything and make them how they used to be.
"All I want is my family back," she whispered miserably, mainly to herself, but also to the mounds of junk that surrounded her and the walls of her room, hoping that any of them would give her the answer for everything.
Jeez, a lot of stuff happened in this chapter. Steven healed his first Corrupted Gem, who seems eager to join the Crystal Gems and help heal all the other mutants as well. Then we had a huge argument between the gems that lead to Garnet crossing the line and sending them away in a violent manner, that had devastating effects. Anyhow, sorry this chapter took so long, my freshmen year at high school is a lot busier than I thought, and so is my personal life. I'm going to get working on the next chapter as quick as I can, which will reveal Pearl's thoughts like it did for Garnet and Amethyst, but I don't know when I'll update again. I swear to you guys, I won't give up on this story like countless other stories before it. Anyways, be sure to follow, favorite and review this story, I accept all kinds of feedback and criticism, so let me know how I'm doing so I know to write more and update quicker. And as always, goodbye and I'll see you in the next one. Lazuli out!
P.S, in case I don't update soon enough, Happy Holidays! :)