AN: Hello there. I know I don't normally post Author's Notes at the beginning of the chapter, but this announcement is important and should be read right away.

Some of you might be wondering why I haven't updated this or any of my stories for such a long time. For those that follow Requiem of Remnant, you already know the explanation if you read the last Author's Note, but for those who don't know, to give a TL;DR:

After years of working hard in college, pushing through blood, sweat and tears, of asshole classmates telling me I wasn't a writer, I was finally about to get a degree I worked years to get, only to be screwed over by the coronavirus pandemic along with hundreds of other students at my college, and barely graduating as a result; now unable to get a decent paying job no matter where I apply too, save for part time/one-off gigs that pay nothing, college debt and bills piling up in addition to medical bills due to my father's health, as not only have his kidneys failed, he also had a seizure last Christmas and I am terrified that I might lose him due to his weakened immune system if I so as touch him after going outside to get groceries while the world just gets more awful every day, I have made what may very well be my last gambit: using my writing to support myself and my family by opening a pa tr eon account and writing whenever I get the chance as I continue to take as many gigs as I can to try and pay the bills.

I go into a more in-depth explanation regarding my absence on my f f . net profile page if you want to know more, but that's the gist of it. I've opened a pa tr eon account to try and help myself and my family out in these awful times.

Let me say right now, it's not a paywall. Instead, depending on how much you pledge, you can get access to a private Discord server, a Q&A session where I answer questions and give general writing advice, private one-on-one lessons about any questions you have about writing, and more.

I will still be writing as much as I can and updating whenever I have the free time in-between gigs. I know some people have mixed feelings at best when it comes to this sort of thing, right now, with the virus making getting a steady job all but impossible for me, I need as much cash as possible to deal with the mountain of medical and college debt. So please, if you could, make a pledge to my pa tr eon, and help me and my family out.

Chapter 16: Unleashed

Sardonyx once got into a scrap with a particularly tough, surprisingly tall, Citrine. It had been one of the hardest fights she'd ever been apart of. That Citrine might not have been the smartest Gem out there, but she made up for it in sheer grit, in refusing to stay down. No matter how many times Sardonyx smacked her around with her hammer, she just kept getting back up like her blows were nothing. And no matter how much damage she did, the Citrine's punches seemed to get stronger as the fight continued. Blows were exchanged for what felt like days; no time for rest, no time to slow down, just her wailing away with her hammer, screaming to no one and everyone as cracks blossomed on both her and the Citrine's skin. And when it was finally over, when she just barely pulled out a win with a blow right at the center of the Citrine's gem, Sardonyx collapsed to her knees and remained perfectly still as she came undone, and all that was left on a battlefield of broken gems was a Garnet and a Pearl.

She didn't like thinking back to that day of the war. One of the big reasons? It was the closest she had come to dying. But right now, Sardonyx couldn't help but think back to that awful fight. Because this fight seemed to be just as long and as hard as that battle.

And because there hadn't been a single time when that Citrine—one of the strongest gems she ever faced—hit her nearly as hard as that thing.

Sardonyx soared through the air like a giant, graceless bird. Buildings in her path were toppled over with ease as she crashed through them, the sounds of bricks and wood and plaster crumbling to less than pebbles echoing every other second. And when her out-of-control body shattered some sort of fishing supply store—complete with a sign in the shape of a cartoon shark that had the words "Some-Finn Special" underneath it—she landed face-first on the ground, bounced off it so hard she left cracks in her wake, and then landed on her back with a thunderous crash, a massive dust cloud rising from the impact and blinding her.

Ow.

Sardonyx blinked, her world suddenly spinning without pause. A loud groan escaped her, right cheek feeling almost numb, head throbbing with pain. What...what just hit her? No, really, what was that, that thing. In the entirety of her own, Garnet's, or Pearl's lives, they had never encountered anything like that. Something that had affected her inner-world. That had just appeared from nowhere and looked like it was made of nothing but some kind of pure, ethereal energy.

She pushed off the ground with two of her arms while the other two tried to blow as much dust away from her as possible. As her vision started to clear up, as the dust started to fade from her view, she tried to get up on her shaky legs as fast as she could. She was still fighting, still trying to stop that Gem from hurting anyone else. And the fight just got a whole lot more complicated with that thing now in the mix.

Where the heck did it even go?

Sardonyx stood up, the dust all but gone, her eyes fully opened.

And she saw nothing but pink as a massive fist hurled towards her face.

"DORA!"

She barely had enough time to get her arms, all four of them, up to guard her face as the blow landed. Her limbs rattled like drums getting beaten left and right, the force sending her skidding backward and digging up deep trenches in the concrete with her feet. When she eventually came to a stop, she quickly moved two of her arms into her fighting stance while the other two went to pull out one of her spare hammers from her forehead gem. There was no way she was gonna let this thing get the drop on her twice in one—

There was no one in front of her.

Sardonyx blinked. The buildings around her were demolished and turned to rubble, the roads torn open and covered in rubble, and the fires she could see finally started to die down.

And she stood completely alone in the rain, thunder crackling in the sky.

Sardonyx slowly pulled out her other hammer from her forehead, eyes darting left and right. What was going on? That thing had just attacked her, and now it was...gone. Like it hadn't been there in the first place. But that was impossible. Even if it was stupidly fast, she would've heard something that big moving. So where the heck was it?

Faster than a blink, her world suddenly turned pink. The buildings around her were suddenly covered in a thick, pink coating that made them look like pulsating sculptures of energy. The ground was the exact same color, as was the sky, and the pink thing was right in front of Sardonyx, its eyes shining with blue light and its fists pulled back.

Oh boy.

"DORA!"

Sardonyx was just able to duck her head to the right and avoid her face getting smashed in. The follow-up jab, she stepped back and out of reach. But the pink thing followed her, moving almost too fast for her to keep track of as it got close, arm poised for an uppercut. Sardonyx brought her war hammer up and—

There was a sudden, throbbing pain in her head and hands, and she suddenly felt tired. So tired that her vision turned to black for a moment.

And then it immediately turned pink as her ethereal enemy slammed a fist right into her cheek, in the exact same spot as before.

"DORA!"

Once again, she was flying. Sardonyx's body careened through the air, crashing through a few buildings that were turned to rubble, and then she hit the road in a tumble, her body digging up trenches of asphalt until she eventually came to a stop.

With a mix of dirt and concrete clouding her visor, Sardonyx shakily pushed off the ground. There was something wrong with her. More than just the pain from that last blow, there was something going on with her body. Something that made her feel heavy and slow, like she'd been fighting for days on end.

Wha...what's happening to me?

Sardonyx groaned, shaking her head as she glanced around. Her eyes went wide as they quickly locked onto the reflective glass of some kind of store. In the reflection, she could see the dirt in her and debris in her clothes, the cracks in her skin.

Skin that was now covered by some kind of pink glow. On certain parts of her body, the parts where that thing had hit her, her skin had been dyed in pink light, and it seemed to be expanding ever so slowly.

This...can't be good.

Before she had any time to dwell on those thoughts, the world changed again. This time, it was the natural orange of her inner-world; at least, partially. That same pink glow had started to intertwine itself with the orange colors that painted her surroundings, seeming to fight with the other color, pushing back and forth like they were physical beings struggling for dominance.

Loud steps suddenly rang from behind her, and she turned around. The thing was back, its arms by its side, fists clenched, and with every footfall, a wave of pink spread over her world, consuming the orange inch by inch. Sardonyx raised her weapon, but when she blinked, it was gone, and she was back in the rain, surrounded by ruined buildings. As Sardonyx stood tall, she looked around for the thing.

She thought back to how the thing kept appearing from seemingly nowhere. How her inner-world was a hectic mess of pinks and oranges, the same pink energy coating her limbs in the physical world. How she felt weaker than she should.

And how she only saw that thing when she was inside her own world.

The rain flickered, and she was back in a storm of pinks and oranges. The thing was stomping towards her, glowing blue eyes aimed right at her. This time, when she felt that oh-so-subtle pull in the back of her mind, trying to get her to focus back on the outside, she instead focused only on her own inner-world. This time, the thing paused its advance, staring at her with those shining blue eyes only a dozen feet away, and slowly raised its fists, getting into a fighting stance.

It looked like she was fighting something that had somehow existed in just her own headspace. Despite how impossible that was—or should be, anyway—all that meant was she had to, quite literally, look insider herself if she wanted to beat this thing; or even see it, for that matter. She could deal with the implications of this later.

With far more flourish than necessary, Sardonyx spun her war hammer, a wide grin on her lips as she slammed the butt of it to the ground. No matter the battle, Sardonyx lived by three rules: Never let them see you sweat, never act like you aren't totally in control, and most of all, smile as much as you can. It always put her enemies off when they saw she was grinning so much they could see her teeth shine. Confidence was her best weapon, and she had refined it over a lifetime of battles. And of course, if she felt confident she could win, then her girls would feel the same and—

Sardonyx's smile went stiff, and she froze.

...The entire time since her world had a makeover, she hadn't heard from Pearl or Garnet. Not once. Where were they?

Her eyes swiveled around, wide and searching for her friends, for parts of herself. And when she finally found them, her smile died an ugly death.

Behind the pink giant, Garney and Pearl stood, completely covered in the same pink energy that was rapidly devouring her own world like a second skin. They were seemingly frozen, both of them staring in shock, like they had seen something heading towards them and didn't even have the time to move out of the way.

Slowly, Sardonyx raised her palms, and saw that both of the gems lodged in the center were now bright pink and glowing. When she glanced up with her four eyes at her forehead, she could see a similar glow coming from it. She was suddenly aware of an empty feeling in her very core that was only growing, one that was tied directly to the cement-like heaviness of her limbs, and could only imagine what her girls were feeling at the same moment.

For the first time in decades, Sardyonx scowled, gritting her teeth as she glared.

"Bub," she said, spitting out that word like it was the filthiest slur she knew. "You just made, a humongous mistake."

The giant said nothing. And neither did she. In a world of pink and orange, there was silence.

Then, Sardonyx charged with a warcry, and the giant matched it with its own, her hammer swinging through the air and right towards the pink deadman's own.

Because there was no way this brute was leaving here without getting a pummeling.


Never, in the entire time that Steven and Connie knew her, had Lapis made such an excruciating sound. To their very core, Stevonnie could feel the sheer agony Lapis felt as she screamed. The water clones around them twisted and convulsed, mouth open in muted screams they could not unleash, and then they dissipated, falling as just more drops in the rain towards the ground.

Lapis quickly followed, hitting the ground with a wet thump, her wings gone, rolling around in the mud and dirt with eyes clenched shut, her screams getting louder.

"Lapis!" Stevonnie quickly moved, ignoring their pain as best they could, and crouched next to their friend. Lapis' convulsions didn't let her stay still for more than a second, but they were able to see parts of her back; of her gem. It was covered in soot, burnt black, but it didn't seem to be damaged by the explosion. Which meant it wasn't something physical causing her pain. And that might have been even more awful.

"Please, Lapis, your gems fine!" Stevonnie shouted, trying to grab onto their friend, but she was just thrashing too much to get a good hold. "It's not cracked!

Lapis' only response was to scream, and it was painful for Stevonnie to hear, maybe even worse than the pain from their injuries. Lapis had told Steven how sensitive her gem was, how even a small, unexpected touch could make her recoil violently, reminding her of that moment her gem had cracked. Even if it didn't physically hurt her, the sheer agony that memory brought her was enough to convince her she was back in that mirror, cracked and completely helpless.

"Lapis, listen to my voice!" Stevonnie shouted, trying to sound as calm as they could, but given everything that was happening, they knew they weren't doing a good job. "I...I know you're in pain, but you have to try and focus on something besides—"

They heard a sharp, piercing whistle in the air. Stevonnie turned, and their eyes went wide at the branch, sharpened to the point of resembling a javelin made of wood, flying towards them. Their hand immediately went to their gem, focusing their will through their pain, and magenta light burst forth as a pink shield formed in their hands. They pulled it back, ready to toss the shield, but with how much their arm shook, how hard it was to even hold their shield, they knew they wouldn't make an accurate throw.

So, with a bit more effort, they focused on their shield, made it almost three times as big, and slammed it into the ground. Pink edges tore through the dirt and lodged firmly into the earth, and the spear hit their shield with an audible crunch.

There was an explosion. Silent flames burned at their shield, cracks forming in its pink, ethereal body, and then, it shattered into a million pieces with an echoing bang. The force from the sudden breaking of their weapon sent both Stevonnie and Lapis flying, thankfully away from the flames just as they burned the spot of ground they had stood on. When they landed back on the ground, Stevonnie tumbled, not stopping until they collided with a tree, another scream leaving their mouth, eyes clenched shut. Pain rippled through their body, and they were certain they heard their gem crack even more.

"Ste...Stevonnie!"

When they eventually opened their eyes, screams fading, they saw Lapis laying on the ground next to them. The explosion had apparently snapped Lapis out of her screaming, eyes slowly opening as heavy breaths escaped her. With trembling limbs, she stood up, the raindrops suddenly changing their paths and coalescing on Lapis' back, quickly forming her water wings. Only, there was something different about them; if Stevonnie hadn't been looking as they were formed, they wouldn't have noticed, but Lapis wings were bent inwards, seemingly forming a shield around the parts of her back where her gem was.

This wasn't good. Everything, everything had just gone so wrong. From the moment Steven and Connie fused into them, they had just been constantly beaten to the ground. There had never been a moment where they had been in control, not even when Lapis, one of the strongest Gems she knew came to help. And now, here they were: bleeding, their gem cracked, and they even got their friend hurt because they couldn't even touch the man that had killed Peridot.

They couldn't do this. They couldn't win.

"Lapis," Stevonnie said, grinding their teeth, blood leaking down the side of her face from a new wound. "Have...did you see Lion? At any point since you got here?"

"What?" Lapis asked. She was staring at Stevonnie, eyes wide and frantic, but they could see the confusion on her face. "Why does that—no?"

"I...he was with me. Fighting Kira." Stevonnie looked towards the forest, searching for their furry friend, and also keeping a lookout for Kira. "I didn't see what happened to him, but, I know he got thrown into the woods. Somewhere. We have to find him."

"Stevonnie..." Lapis seemed to fumble on her own tongue, not sure what to say, or how to say it. "If we spend time looking for Lion, we'd be opening ourselves up. He—Kira, could attack us and I—" She let out a painful hiss, wings shimmering slightly, losing their cohesion, before they suddenly regained their previous form. "I can't concentrate on my powers well, right now. It's too risky."

"I, I know. But, we have to get to him. Whatever happened to him, I'm sure he's hurt, and he needs help." A shaky breath left their mouth as they push off the ground, shakily sitting up against the tree behind them. "And once we heal him, we can get out of here."

"I get that you're just worried about Lion, but we shouldn't—" Lapis stopped talking, going completely still. She turned back to Stevonnie, an unreadable expression on her face. "...What do you mean, 'get out of here'?"

Stevonnie hesitated, glancing at the ground. "Lapis, I don't...we can't win."

"What!?" she shouted, pure outrage in her voice, recoiling at the very idea of leaving.

"I'm sorry, but we haven't even hurt him once, and he's been doing nothing but hurting us every minute. Maybe if we, get the others"—they tried their best to ignore the turmoil just mentioning the Crystal Gems brought—"we can take him down, but we need to find Lion and get away with him—"

"We don't need them!" Lapis was shaking, a snarl on her face. "This bastard's not leaving here until I get him back for killing Peridot!"

"Lapis, please, I don't want you to get hurt anymore—"

"I'm not hurt! I just, got surprised. And it won't happen again!"

"—and I can't help you when I'm like this. When I'm this close to—" Shattering, they didn't say, but they didn't have to. The fear they felt at just that thought made their voice tremble with every word, telling Lapis more than enough about how terrified they were. "We need to get out of here. Please."

The anger in Lapis' lessened, expression softening. "Stevonnie..."

"We just have to find Lion and get the heck out of as fast as we can before that monster—"

To the left of them, there was an explosion. Stevenonnie screamed, pushing off the trunk and quickly falling back to the ground as their injured legs collapsed under them. Lapis flew backwards, staring at the source of the explosion. Stevonnie did the same, quickly sitting up from the ground, and saw that some of the bushes had erupted with flames, parts of nearby trees now missing large chunks of bark.

That was it. For some reason, Stevonnie couldn't shake the unwavering sense of paranoia all but screaming in their head. They didn't know what, but they were expecting something else to happen any moment. Their muscles were tensed and their gem glowed a steady pink, eyes darting around and trying to see if there was anything—

When they glanced at Lapis, who was still staring at the fires in confusion, they saw something moving through the rain, round and small, shimmering in and out of view like a mirage, orb-shaped and heading right towards Lapis' chest, just like the last orb that had caused her so much pain.

"Lapis, in front of you!" Stevonnie shouted, eyes wide.

Lapis head whipped around, saw the orb that was slowly getting closer to her, and instantly flew backward, eyes wide and almost crashing into a tree branch before she stopped just ahead of it.

And through it all, Stevonnie had the ever-present feeling that something was wrong.

Why would Kira waste time with the first explosion? Their heart was beating wildly in their chest. Did he miss? No, something's different, something's wrong; so wrong. Their eyes darted everywhere. They felt like they and Lapis had fallen for some trap, but that shouldn't be the case, not when Lapis had avoided that obvious attack.

Their blood went cold. That attack had been obvious. Too obvious. It came from the front, where Stevonnie could see it and had plenty of chances to warn Lapis, and Lapis would of course do her best to avoid experiencing any pain like before, so she would fly backward to the trees and—

Their eyes went to the tree Lapis floated in front of. And through the heavy rain, past the thick leaves drenched with water and on a branch high in the air, they saw two horrifying pink eyes floating in the dark of the forest and glaring right at Lapis.

Their heart stopped beating.

"Lapis, behind—"

Their scream was never finished as the monster within it burst from its cover, soaring right towards Lapis. Their friend was already turning around, and her eyes went wide before instantly narrowing into a fierce glare; her hands quickly pulled back, the water from the rain forming sharp blades in a second, and with a scream, she thrust her hands and the blades pierced the air like a storm of jets, all heading towards Kira.

But not the monster. The monster that was already inches away from Lapis' face, emotionless eyes never even blinking as it brought its hands up to her face, fingers like black daggers as they thrust forwards so fast they were a blur. There was a wet, popping sound.

And Lapis screamed.

The blades that were heading towards Kira lost their form, buckets worth of water now harmlessly splashing the man. Stevonnie watched as the monster picked up Kira by his legs and back as it landed on the ground, absorbing the impact for him. Lapis had no one to do so for her. She tumbled through the air, hands gripping her face, and she hit the muddy ground with a loud, wet crunch.

All while she screamed. A horrible, agonizing scream.

"Lapis!" Stevonnie screeched.

"Damn."

Stevonnie whirled around. Kira was staring at his wet clothes with an almost resigned expression.

"It's going to take me hours to get this suit dry again."

He had just caused their friend such immense pain, and he didn't even care. He was more concerned about his clothes than about another person's life.

Their blood boiled, their skin felt like it was on fire, and they pushed past their pain as they screamed. "You bast—"

"Universe, Maheswaran," Kira said, sounding completely bored as he continued to examine his suit, never even looking at them. "Perhaps you should focus more on your surroundings than me. There's a downdraft, after all."

What?

They felt something brushing through their hair. They looked over their shoulder.

The orb from before was inches away from their face. And now that it was so close, they could see it was different than the last one. This one wasn't purple, but instead was almost transparent, and as it brushed against their skin, they could feel harsh winds scraping against their skin, hear what sounded like wind being channeled through a funnel, their eyes widening just as the orb made contact with their right eye, the orb twisting in on itself into some-kind of paw-print shape and they felt something press directly against their eyeball—

There was a burst of air, sending them flying. Then, there was pain.

Nothing but pain.

Stevonnie screamed so much they could feel their vocal cords snapping. Blood flowed from their right eye—their destroyed eye. They could feel the remains of their eye slip through their bloody fingers as they clenched at their socket. It was disgusting, it was horrible, and they couldn't stop screaming because it hurt so damn much—

Without warning, a shoe stomped against their throat. Blood jettisoned from their mouth, and their screams came to a grinding halt.

"I had heard children could be loud, but this is just ridiculous." Kira's cold purple eyes looked down at them, his monster right by his side, putting more and more pressure on their throat. They coughed another thick glob of blood. "If anything, I should be the one screaming. Universe, you and your family have given me so many headaches ever since that green midget's death."

Her name was Peridot! They wanted to scream that, wanted to get up and demand he stop belittling her, belittling all of them, but they couldn't. They couldn't even breathe; both from the pressure on their throat and the fear that was rapidly rising inside them the longer they looked at both Kira and the monster. They were helpless, and their gems kept cracking as more blood leaked from their crushed eye.

I...I'm going to die.

The thought came suddenly, and they truly believed it. They were trapped underneath Kira's heel, and even if they weren't, it wouldn't have made a difference. What could they do when they were so injured? When they couldn't so much as twitch without sending red-hot flashes of agony across their body? Everything they had done throughout this fight had been useless.

"Oh?" Kira tilted his head. "Is that despair I see in your eyes?" he asked, a hint of amusement, the darkest form they ever head, lingering under his words, and he grinned. "And here I was thinking you were too asinine to learn. But it seems you finally grasp the gravity of your situation."

He chuckled. An enraged scream quickly followed, coming from behind him.

"Bastard! "Lapis roared, now standing tall, eyes shut. She was trembling badly, trying to form her water wings with the rain and striking out wildly with her fists, arcs of compressed water shooting in every direction and slicing through trees. "Where are you!?"

Lapis finally opened her eyes, and all Stevonnie saw were cracks. So many cracks, to the point they couldn't even make out Lapis' pupils anymore, pieces of her eye falling out like misshapen jig-saw puzzle pieces and shattering along the ground.

"It's nice to see that, regardless of species," Kira started, looking down at Stevonnie's destroyed eye. "The eyes are always the weakest point."

"There you are!" Lapis lifted her hands up, and every single raindrop in the air froze. Then, they soared, coalescing high above Lapis into a ball-like shape, one that was rapidly transforming into something resembling a hand as more and more drops of water flooded its body. "You're fucking dead!"

"Funny," Kira said, and he smiled; it was a small, almost polite, smile. Every inch of Stevenonie's skin shivered. "I was about to say something similar to you."

The monster next to Kira lifted its thumb up, and Stevonnie suddenly thought back to how that horrible, burning agony that came from within their very skin.

"Shut up!" Lapis shouted, more water gathering, the hand's fingers now fully formed, covering the entire sky of the forest.

They wanted to scream at Lapis, to tell her to run, to get away from here, because Kira was about to do something horrible. But all they could do was gasp helplessly, eyes wide and heart pounding in their chest.

"Killer Queen," Kira said, smile widening as he stared right at Lapis. "First bomb."

"For what you did to my friend," Lapis roared, clenching her fist as the hand began to move. "You'll fucking scream—"

"Engage."

The monster brought its thumb down, and Stevonnie watched in silent horror.

They saw the cracks come first, just like before. They saw the fire that rushed from within her very skin erupt from the cracks, eyes widening as they quickly consumed her body, just like before. With Peridot. They could all but see their friend in their last moments being taken away from them yet again, and in the silent flames, they could hear her, along with Lapis, scream perfectly.

Somehow, they were even worse than before.

The explosion sent Lapis flying, body careening lifelessly, crashing into the ground in a tumble. Her clothes were burned charcoal black, parts of her body now on fire even as the rain peled her skin. But all Stevonnie could focus on her was her Gem. Her Gem, that was full of cracks.

No...

Lapis construct fell apart, the water that had made up its form plummeting through the air, gallons worth of water splashing Lapis. She didn't so much as twitch.

Please, no.

More and more pieces of her eyes, now pitch-black, fell to the ground, leaving her sockets completely empty. And they felt her hollow gaze on their skin, feel the accusation behind them. That they failed.

Just like before.

Not again.

Lapis' body turned into an ethereal white light in the shape of her physical form, and the light quickly slipped into her Gem. The moment it did, the cracks on it grew worse.

Not again!

Their hands grabbed at the foot blocking them, and they pushed. It was like trying to move a boulder, the monster's foot not even budging an inch. But they kept trying, kept ignoring their pain and the cracking of their own skin and Gem because Lapis needed them right now and were about to die just like Peridot and they had to save her before it was too—

"Are you still breathing?

A foot stomped on their gemstone, and the strength left their limbs as a mangled scream left their throat.

Kira glared at them slightly, like he just stepped in something unpleasant. "You take an eternity to choke," he said, sounding irritated, pressing his shoe harder against their gem. They coughed blood, and more cracks emerged on their skin. "I suppose you weren't exaggerating when you told me how long you could hold your breath, Universe. But no matter how you struggle, we both know how this will end."

Stevonnie could only gasp and cough in response.

"Accept your fate, Universe, Maheswaran. At the very least, you'll be able to see your 'friend' again."

They had to move, had to get up and save Lapis before it was too late, but this monster was just too strong, and they were so weak, in so much pain, their vision darkening, their brain begging for oxygen, and they just didn't have the strength to—

"And who knows?" A cruel smile crossed Kira's face, nothing but malice in his eyes. "Maybe you'll see your father soon, Universe."

Everything stopped. The rain around them, their own heartbeat, even Kira and his monster, froze.

The words rebounded in Stevonnies head, instantly seeing the meaning behind them. He was threatening Greg, Steven's dad, one of their dads, threatening to kill him with those horrible explosions that burned from the inside out. Their dad, who was nicest and most caring person they knew, who was the one person Steven could honestly say loved him without any doubts, was being threatened by this killer. Someone who was right in front of them, bragging to their face what he was about to do, assured that there was nothing they could do to stop him.

They thought of Peridot, imagined the same happening to their dad, and deep within themselves, from the parts of them that were made more from Steven than anyone else, that were still aware and furious despite the pain, they felt something rise up, fill their body from top to bottom, their emotions reaching a crescendo that was impossible to ignore, and as they started to push against the monster's shoe, veins bulging on their arms, they decided with every fiber of their being that this man would die before he touched their dad!

In an instant, they felt power, pure power, singing through their blood.

Every inch of their skin turned bright pink.

Kira's eyes went wide.

And the roar they let loose tore the forest apart.

To Be Continued~