To say the gems were surprised was an understatement. To say that my mother was a secret special operative for Rose in the gem war really got their attentions. Of course, being the right hand of Rose, Pearl evidently dismissed the whole thing but the way how I've been acting kinda shot that idea down. Not to mention Garnet actually backed me up.


"Now I remember her." Garnet says.

"When we first met, you said you had an idea but nothing conclusive, right?" I ask her. She nods.

"Yes. While Rose and your mom didn't want anyone to find out about her identity or how she even existed, I merely met her very briefly and that was only because I walked in on them. Your mom kinda freaked out and we fought a bit but Rose managed to calm us down. I never met her, or found out who exactly your mom was Marcus but if Rose trusted her, then I did as well. She also swore me to secrecy about her identity or that she existed so that's probably why I barely remember her. It was just one moment and I was told to forget about her entirely." Garnet explains. She looks to me. "I'm sorry I couldn't remember sooner."

I wave her off. "It's fine. I found out eventually and even if you did remember, what info could you have provided for me. That probably would have left me scratching my head even more than I already was. It's all good." I reassure.

"I'm glad."

"Question?"

"Yes, Steven?"

"Why do I have to not look directly at what you are doing?" I smile as I put down plasma torch I am using.


After I came back to everyone and told them what I went through, then Steven told me what he went through in his mothers room, I got to work on retrofitting my gear coming up with new weapons for me to make. One such prototype I wanted to work on was making my own set of IED's (Improvised Explosive Devices). Some of the things we fought were starting to get bigger and badder so I need things to really deal damage on the fly. I started by grabbing a bunch of electronic devices, tools and other miscellaneous items for what they have in them, followed by a bunch of disposable cell phones so I could remotely trigger the bombs using my phone. I'll have to eventually switch to use the natural hand trigger deal but for right now it's going to be a rush job. That's why I told Steven to not look directly at my work because more often than not I'm going to be using that generates a lot of heat and a lot of light, like those welding tools you sometimes see welders use so while fun to look at, they can damage a person's retinas. I've already gotten some goggles for me to use and I'm pretty sure the gems don't need to worry about burning anything.

The warp pad deactivates and I dive forward, rolling on the ground once before I bring my AK up to bear and scan the immediate area around us. "Clear."

"Honestly Marcus. You don't have to do that." Pearl says to me as she and the others step off the warp pad.

"Can't be too careful. You never know when a hostile is lurking around the next corner and there is a delay for when we actually come out of the warp pad and it deactivates. That can give an enemy ample time to surprise." I calmly explain to her on why I'm so jumpy. Both figuratively and literally.

"You inherited your mothers paranoia, didn't you?" Garnet asks as she walks past me, patting my shoulder along the way.

"Yep… and a little of my dad too." I answer and walk with her to our objective. Ever since I did come out of the room, true my intelligence did take a massive increase to what I know but my senses all took a leap as well making me start to look at things and the environment I know of in an entirely new light, where enemies could hide, vantage points, exploitable locations and so forth.

"Woah! What magical place of mystery is this?" Steven's surprise of the place we are at pushes me from my thoughts and I take a gaze as well. The whole place is some massive building like structure with a ton of different pillars and columns to keep it stable.

"Well-" Amethyst begins to explain but gets cut off by a particularly excited Pearl

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked! This was once a communication hub for Gem-kind." She says as she walks over to one of the pillars. "But lately, it's begun transmitting bursts of electromagnetic interference!"

'Damn, a communication hub. You know, maybe I can take a crack at looking at it. Maybe I can turn it into-' "Wait, electromagnetic interference?" I ask.

"Whazzat mean?" I hear Steven ask Garnet.

"It's hurting television." She bluntly says it in terms that he would understand.

"Noooooooo!" Evidently it worked from the sound his cries. "I'll save you television! Ha-yah!" Steven tries to damage one of the pillars but fails.

Looking back to the structure, I think. 'If this thing is screwing with the broadcasting of TV, while I'm angry about it, I bet I could probably come up with a way to up the strength of it while focusing it to another type of interference… like phones.'

"Amethyst, we could be here all day taking out these pillars individually." Pearls scolding of the purple hyper gem pushes me from my thoughts.

"Ugh, I hate it when you're right. You get this look on your face..." Amethyst begins to say but turns a bt more annoyed at seeing the cute face Pearl's making. "Yeah, that's the one."

"She's right though." I say out loud while still looking at the pillars. "Your brute strength alone won't cut it here Amethyst. Man if I had finished working on my IED's, I could have used them here. Place one right there, one over there, that can topple over…" I trail off as images of what I'm saying start to flash across my eyes.

"And since we don't have Marcus's prototypes, what we need is a well thought out plan-" Pearl begins to say as her gem starts to glow to probably project a hologram.

"No." Garnets sudden interruption actually surprises me a little as well as everyone else. "What we need is Sugilite."

'Sugilite?' I think.

She turns to Amethyst, "Amethyst, fuse with me."

"WHAAAT?!" Both gems say loudly but with very different moods on the subject. Amethyst screams in excitement while Pearl looks like she's confused and angry.

"Yeah! Let's mash it up! Bigger, badder, better! Ohohohohoho!" A very overenthusiastic Amethyst says she twirls around.

"Hold your horses!" Steven stops all their movement to get his bearings on what they're going to do. "Are... you guys going to become a Gem Fusion?" He asks excitedly. Amethyst replies with an excited scream, causing her and Steven to scream in excitement.

"WAIT!" Pearl stops all the excitement. I'm not exactly as enthusiastic about fusion as Steven and Amethyst are but if its anything like Opal, I figured it could be something good, but the way how Pearl looks makes me uneasy. "Garnet, think about this. You and Amethyst can be a little... eheh... unstable when your personalities combine. We need to be careful! Fuse with me, instead."

"And that sealed my uneasiness." I mutter as I sling my rifle on my back.

"We don't need to be careful. We just need to be huge." Garnet says. I don't know if she meant to try to reassure Pearl with her statement but it looks like it didn't work at all, she still looks freaked out.

"Oh, yeah! Let's wreck this joint!" Amethyst however remains indifferent however the subject and is still just as anxious. She and Garnet move a fair distance apart and get into position to fuse. I never did get the full view of when the gems fused so while Pearl looks uneasy, I'm somewhat excited to see an actual fusion dance without a giant bird trying to eat us.

"Synchronize." Garnet says and proceeds to… dance.

"Whoa." Is all I can say at the… movements the two begin to exhibit. Looking over to Pearl, I see a noticeable blush appear on her face and quickly covers Stevens eyes.

"Wha-? Whu-? Pearrrl... Come on! I wanna see!" He tries to pull off her fingers but I cover him up as well.

"No can do little man. This is… uh… not suitable… for…" I trail off as I swallow and lean to Pearl. "Are all fusion dances so… intimate and expressive?" I whisper to her.

"Yes, they do. When two gems fuse, there is a connection between the two that go far deep into each other's core that allows them share a veritable amount of feelings and emotions between the two, as well as the power that both gems can harness when together." She says somewhat somberly. Good with my answer, I turn back to the two gems just as they come together.

At first it looks normal like the almost one I saw back at the sky spire but things go crazy and their forms start to turn bigger and bigger until they form into this Sugilite, turning them into a veritable powerhouse of a gem that absolutely radiates with strength and power. I didn't even need to hear her voice to deduce that.

"Hahahahaha!" Sugilite laughs loudly as she cracks her knuckles. "I forgot how GREAT it feels to be me!"

"That's Sugilite?" Steven says in awe.

"Holy…" I add as well as I take in this creature before me. I can't help but take a step back in preparation for… something.

"You got it, baby. Hey, Steven. Wanna see something cool?" Sugilite appeals to Stevens child-like wonder. I don't know if she saw the wariness that I'm exhibiting but I'm staying silent.

"Yeah!" At Steven's insistence, Sugilite happily obliges. She pulls out giant versions of Garnet's gauntlets and Amethyst's whip before fusing them together into some sort of wrecking ball weapon. Steven gasps loudly in amazement.

"You like that, little man?"

"Are you gonna smash stuff with your wrecking-ball-thingy?" He asks her.

"That's the plan! Where should I start?" Sugilite asks as she turns to the pillars.

"Hold up. I don't know about you but you can't jus-"

"Do that one!" Steven proceeds to interrupt my warning and points to a pillar. Almost instantly, Sugilite proceeds to smash the pillar he pointed to and other pillars as well.

"Steven, I think we should go." Pearl says as she tries to pull Steven to the warp pad.

"No way! This is awesome!" Steven however wants to stay.

"Steven, I really think we should go. Sugilite is starting to get-"

"Watch it!" Pearl interrupts me with her words and the rock with a kick, breaking it in half.

"Whoa!" I yelp and summon my swords in an instant, chopping another boulder with an X-cross of both my swords.

"OW!" A small rock gets past me and Pearl and hits Steven in the face.

"Steven!" Pearl and I exclaim. I move over to him to check and see if he's alright. "Ugh, you're just too much!" I hear Pearl yell to Sugilite.

"Maybe you're just too LITTLE!" Is her reply.

"Steven, you alright man?" I ask him as I help him to his feet. The rock didn't do anything too major to him, just a small cut.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Steven, Marcus, we're going!" Pearl says to us as she picks Steven up. They begin walking to the warp pad while I ready myself with my swords in case more rocks are sent towards us.

"What? I'm fine! What about Sugilite?" Steven asks as I slowly walk back so I'm not too far away from them.

"She can find her own way home!"

"Awww..." Steven lets out a dejected moan at not being able to see Sugilite's destructive prowess.

"Marcus lets go!" Pearl calls out to me. Looking back, I see both her and Steven standing in front of the Warp pad.

"Coming!" I call back and jog over to them. As I get closer, I notice a shadow move over me. Looking up, I see a massive boulder fly towards the warp pad and they haven't noticed it. "Guys!" I yell and throw away my swords.

"Wha-" She looks up in time to see the boulder heading right towards them. Her eyes widen in horror but I quickly tackle them onto the pad and activate it at the same time.


"Waaaa!" Steven yells as he is sent flying out of the warp portal as all three of us make it back to the temple. "Whoooaaa! That was so cool! Marcus, Pearl! What do you guys…" He yells to us but stops at seeing our still forms.

In my haste to save Pearl and Steven, I must have activated the warp pad and I'm holding onto Pearl tightly. Right now my senses, and spine, are pretty jarred right now because of the sudden warp travel, and the fact that I landed flat on my back on a hard crystal surface. Pearl shakes her head a bit to clear her sense of the rough landing and finally sees what she's landing on. The pain starts' receding from my body and it's when we look into each other's eyes do I finally release her. "Sorry."

"No no, it's… its fine." She nervously says as she gets up from me. Groaning from the impact, I stand up as well. Remembering what happened just before we disappeared, I try to activate the warp pad to no success.

"Looks like we aren't going back to the communication hub." I say out loud. For a few seconds, no one responds. I look back and to see that Pearl is already walking outside and Steven is standing there. "Crap. That wasn't awkward at all." I say to myself.


So far, the rest of the day has started to pass and Steven had decided to flaunt his 'injury' to Sadie and Lars at Big Donut. Soon after that, he had his dad start to make a makeshift gym on the beach. After Greg made some barbell sets out of paint cans, a climbing station, a tire obstacle course, he fell asleep. I get the feeling that he is out of shape because when a person falls asleep in the middle of construction work, their either an insomnia, or not as healthy as one would expect. Either way, I decided to go ahead and get my own work out started. Not wanting to disturb Greg from his sleep, I found a flat rock and spent the last hour doing reps of simple exercises, sit-up, push-ups, and stepping up and down on the rock to simulate stairs. Now I decide to push things up a bit and go it in a way I've really only seen in movies: Handstand push-ups.

"Heya!" I grunt as I push myself up into my handstand position. Feeling myself angled right, I begin. Unlike how most people see in the movies of something like this, sure it looks cool but some people don't particularly realize that you use your own body as a weight. After a dozen pushes, my arms start to burn from the exertion but I push through and continue. Over the time I've been exercising since my excursion against that monster on the beach at night during the storm, I've noticed that the results of my workout have been a bit more pronounced than a regular human has. I don't know if it's my gem biology or my mother's form that helped but I'm thankful nonetheless. Even right now, I can almost feel my muscles starting to tense up and harden.

"That's it Marcus!"

The loud voice causes me to stop on my 75th rep and look up. Steven has an excited look on his face with Sadie, Lars and his dad standing next to him. 'Guess I was so wrapped up in my thoughts I didn't notice them here.'

"That's the type of workout I like to see!" Steven says with much enthusiasm. I lightly smile at that.

"Shouldn't you be wearing more… appropriate workout clothes?" Sadie asks. Comparing clothes, she's right. She, Lars and Steven are wearing clothes that are fit for working out while I am still in my regular attire, jeans, shoes, t-shirt, jacket and all. Hell I still have my Beretta's on me as well, fully loaded, that's a few pounds added right there.

"Maybe…" I grunt out. In one quick move, I let myself move low to the ground and push myself up hard, flipping forward and landing on my feet. To say the others are surprised is an understatement. I walk myself over to a large rock. "But it just adds to the weight and resistance. Besides…" As I stand in front of the rock, I look to my right hand.


Finally, I push back.

When they are a couple feet from me, in defiance, I slam my fists hard into the ground. To my surprise, an area-of-effect attack happens around me, sending a concussive blast away from me, sending my attackers far away from me.


I close my fist at the memory of that battle and the power I used. Most of me was increased tremendously when I walked out of my mom's rooms, she also said my powers would as well. I close my eyes and breathe in steadily, concentrating of moving power to my right hand. It doesn't look it but I feel something in my hand. It's hard to describe but decide to put it to the test. I look to the rock and open my hand into a palm strike.

Reaching back, I tense my arm up and faster than anyone can blink, I thrust.

*CRACK!*

My arm crashes through rock, sending ripples of cracks all throughout its body until it crumbles away to gravel. My arm feels sore from the hit but the effect is all I need. I turn back to the others as I shake the dust from my hand. Steven is mouth agape in pure awe, Sadie and Lars's minds are probably blown from this example and so does Greg. "… I think I'm pretty good with how I wear."

"Whooooooaaaaaa!" Steven says as he places his hands against his face.

"How did you…" Lars begins to say but trails off.

"Break more stuff! Like Sugilite!" Steven cuts off any more comments. I frown a bit at his sort of obsession with the fusion gem. I'm not as enthusiastic about her as he is, the carelessness she exhibited with the communication hub and just the feeling I got with her just completely rubbed me the wrong way.

"Easy Steven. Power and breaking stuff is all well and good, but balance is a good thing to have as well." I warn him. He doesn't look any different and probably still wants me to break something. "Sorry man, but I already got my work out today. I need to get back to work in cleaning my stuff." I say and proceed to walk back to the house. Unfortunately, I almost walk into Pearl. "Oh crap! Sorry, Pearl. Didn't see you there."

"No worries. No harm done." She says with a slight smile.

"Good, good."

"We'll need sweat bands!" Steven runs past the both of us and up to the Beach House.

I sigh, 'Looks like he still wants to get muscle strong.'

"Hey Pearl. Come to check out some buff studs?" I can't help but look back to Greg at his statement.

Pearl looks Greg over. "No." I stifle a laugh at her bluntness and walk with her up to the Beach House where we meet Steven with several sweat bands. "Steven, what on earth are you up to?" she asks him.

"Getting strong." I say and lean against the house.

" Yeah! We're starting a gym!" He answers as well and flexes. "Imma get supa strong! Like Sugilite!" He finishes. Interesting enough, I can't help but note how Pearl looked happy and smiled at the thought of Steven getting strong but immediately turns disheartened at the mention of the fusion.

"You know, maybe this isn't a good idea." She tries to dissuade him from his quest of getting strong.

"What? I wanna be strong so I can be useful to the team!" He tries to reason. I like his reason but how he's going about it might not work as much.

"There are different ways of being strong..." She tries to reason to him on the other possibilities of strong.

"She's right Steven. Muscles aren't everything." I add. True, there have been moments where I could have used super strength, more than I have now, but I always preferred my way of using movement to be able to beat my opponents.

"But I want to be strong in the real way." He continues to stick to his way of doing things. "Come on, guys." He puts on a sweatband. "Let's get beefy!" At his last decoration, I notice Pearl blushes angrily about it.

"I'd rather not." She says and enters the Beach House.

"Marcus?" he asks me now. I open my mouth to say something

"Why do you have to look up to her
Aside from in a literal sense?
Don't you know that a power that big
Comes with a bigger expense

But a voice interrupts me, causing both Steven and I to look inside to see it was Pearl. We both duck to the ground however as Pearl turns back to the window.

And can't you see that she's out of control
And overzealous?
I'm telling you for your own good,
And not because I'm-

I can show you how to be strong...
In the real way.
And I know that
we can be strong
In the real way.

And I want to inspire you
I want to be your rock
And when I talk
It lights a fire in you

I look back inside to see Pearl give small reprieve at her singing and walk to the door. I quickly crawl my way to the side of the house so she doesn't see me.

"Who' s ready to get buff?!" I look back to see Steven is back on the beach with a megaphone and the stereos volume cranked up. "I don't wanna see your gut. I wanna see your guts!" He yells to the others. I see him look back to the house but towards Pearl. They both share eye contact for a second before she looks away and head back into the house. Steven proceeds to sing his own version of the song.

"I can show you how to be strong...
In the real way
And I know that
we can be strong
In the real way"

Now Steven and Pearl begin to sing but I pay more attention to Pearl's voice.

"And I want to inspire you
I want to be your rock
And when I talk
It lights a fire in you

I want to inspire you
I want to be your rock
And when I talk
It lights a fire in you."

"My god." I say under my breath. In all the time I've been here with the gems, a song isn't something I thought I would hear and Pearl… Needless to say that she sung beautifully. Flawlessly if want to say more. Seeing her still look a little depressed, I step back so she doesn't know I've been eavesdropping.

"Hey, Steven. Maybe um... you can work out a bit, too?" I hear Sadie ask Steven.

"Uh-huh? I have been."

"We've been working out." Lars grumbles out annoyingly to Steven. "You've just been singing some dumb song. And what about him!? He hasn't been working out with us." Even if I didn't hear him, Lars's pointing and gesturing to me kind of extenuates that. "He's just been polishing his-!" Lars rant puses as he get a good look at my berretta in my hand.

"Your right." Steven turns back to me and points his megaphone at me. "Hey Marcus! C'mon and join us. You can really show us how to pump iron!" he loudly says to me while flexing his arms.

I really don't like his sort of obsession with getting beefy strong and all, especially not after having seen Sugilite with her prowess. I stare at them for a few seconds before looking around for something to demonstrate another form of power. Looking up, I spot the temples statue and smile at an idea.

I run up along the side of the house until I grab the edge of the roof and easily hoist myself up. As I plant my feet firmly on the roof and I run over to the mountainous rock area and proceed to climb my way up, using my dexterity and athleticism to make my way up. The rocks and outcroppings are child's play to me in climbing up but when I get to the smooth stone statue part, that's where the challenge starts.

I hear the door open behind me and look back to see Pearl looking up at me with wide eyes. Ignoring her warning, I start climbing my way up. The smooth stone structure at first really hampers how much I can grab so I have to find mall cracks for my fingers to fit into. 'Man, I don't envy people who scale cliffs.' I think as I crawl up a little more. This brings back memories of when I watched one of the early Mission Impossible movies where close to the beginning, the main character was introduced scaling a massive sheer cliff thin mountain with his bare hands. After he made it to the top and got those mission info glasses or whatever from the helicopter, I was wondering just how was he going to be able to get down.

My thoughts are interrupted as I go to grab sharp ledge along the neck line of the statues dress, it breaks. The clump of rocks in my right hand make me lose my grip on the hand and my feet, resulting in me dangling by my left hand.

"Marcus!" I hear the concerned voice of all my friends down below, Steven's being a bit louder because of the megaphone. I dangle there for a few tense seconds, catching my breath as I stare into their concerned faces. Steven looks freaked out, Lars, Sadie, Greg don't know what to do, and Pearl is absolutely freaked out as she looks around for something to do or grab to help me out.

With a grunt of determination, I swing my arm back around and continue my climb like its nothing. The face part of the statue is a little bit easier with all its facial features but I'm being extra careful so I don't break anything significant off. The journey is smooth sailing as I move to the side of the face and launch myself onto the arm of the statue that's outstretched. Making sure the arm is sturdy, I lightly run along it towards the palm that's extended out to the beach. When I make it to the wrist, I slow my pace until I am standing on the tips of the fingers.

Height has never been an issue to me so I go ahead and take in the beauty of the landscape, especially the sun that starts to lower over the water as the wind billows against me, not enough to push me off but enough to have hair and my jacket wave with the wind. I can see all of Beach City, the highway leading out of town and far off into the oceans distance. If I close my eyes and concentrate, I swear I could hear Sugilite continue to destroy the communication hub and roar out in defiance. As I open my eyes, I see everyone continue to stare at me. Pearl looks slightly relieved at my progress and Steven looks up in awe at me. I smile at the effect I've had on the others as well as proving to myself on how agile I am enough to climb this structure.

Now you may be wondering how I'm going to be getting down from my position. See, unlike Tom cruise in the second mission impossible movie, my way of going down is easier.

I walk off.

The wind immediately kicks up around my ears as I hear the concerned cries of my friends. My face remains its calm stoic self as the ground comes closer and closer to me with my jacket kicking up all over the place.

*Crash*


In a large billow of smoke and sand, Marcus hits the ground hard. Pearl jumps down from the house and moves with the others to see how their friend is doing. Fearing the worst, Pearl summons her spear and sends a large gust of wind against the make-shift smoke cloud. To everyone's surprise, Marcus is there in a small crater on one hand and knee, looking no worse for wear. Slowly, he stands up and lightly shakes himself off of sand with a few brushes of his hand on his jacket. He casually walks out of the crater giving a nod to Pearl and stands in front of Steven.

"Strength isn't everything Steven. People can fight and contribute in other ways." He says to him. He pats his head as he walks past him. "Think about it." With that, he makes his way to the beach house.

Everyone waits a bit until Marcus walks into the house. "Whoa." Greg voices everyone's thoughts on the situation.

"That… was so cool!" Steven says with excitement in his voice.

"I… don't know… how…" Lars tries to reason what happened but can't.

"That… was pretty cool." Sadie agrees with Steven.

"Pretty impressive, right Pearl?... Pearl?" Greg asks the gem but when she doesn't answer, he looks to see that she's gone. Looking around, he spots her walking into the house and slamming the door. "Huh, what's up with her?"


"What was that?!" I turn back to see Pearl angrily stalking towards me.

"What? Back there? Just wanted to show Steven another means of getting strong." I say as I look back to her and sit down on the couch to let my feet rest.

"How?! By killing yourself?" she asks incredulously.

"No. I also wanted to test an ability of mine." I explain. With all the opportunity's and potential ability's that my mom did, I want to try to make sure I can do as much of them as I can. Falling from very high heights can be very useful.

"So what? Punching a rock wasn't enough for you?" She asks with bitterness lacing her tone.

'Oh, she saw that.' I think with a side look.

"If you wanted to show Steven power and strength, that wasn't a very wise move. And neither was falling off a cliff!" she almost yells the last part. "You know how impressionable he can be!"

I stand up and walk over to her, "What's up with you? Ever since Sugilite appe-"

"Don't you dare speak about her here!" she angrily cuts her off.

"I don't care about her here! I care about you!"

Silence follows after my words. Even I'm surprised at my sudden statement.

Slowly, I take a deep breath to control my emotions, "I don't know what it is you got going on, but you need to lock it up. Without Garnet and Amethyst here, we are severely underpowered. When the time comes," I begin to say and walk over to the door, "I expect you to know who your friends." I slam the door closed.


I didn't get much sleep last night. After I left, I just walked around town to clear my head. Didn't help much so when I finally got back to the house, I found Steven was completely conked out and Pearl had already retired to the temple. I've thought about trying to activate my mother's room so I can have my own place to chill out but I remember her mentioning that it was only a recording. Plus my gem isn't on the temple door, unlike the others, so I just haven't bothered in trying. I spent the majority of the time working on some of my things. Nothing worth a breakthrough but hopefully soon.

"Steven, come on! We're ready to get started! We can't work out without your mad coaching skills!" Sadie's loud voice from the beach wakes me from my slumber. I find that I'm actually sleeping against the kitchen counter. Thinking back to how long I was awake last night and the time now, I can say I probably got a half-dozen hours of sleep.

"Ohhhhh… Be there in a sec!" Ignoring the cramps in my back and neck, I looks over to Steven to see him getting off the bed, with many groans of pain following, as he proceeds to go down the stairs. "So sore from getting ripped..."

"Get use to it man." I say and get off the stool, my muscles sore as well from the workout yesterday and exercising my powers quite thoroughly. "If you want the ripped and beefy structure you seem so fond of wanting to get, get used to a lot of tired and soreness to go along with it. Like the saying goes 'No pain, no gain.'"

"Uhhhhh." He groans out at the thought of all the pain he could be getting if he continues his workout.

"I don't understand." Steven and I look over to Pearl to see her standing on the war pad. "Amethyst and Garnet still aren't back yet. I tried to warp back and check on them, but the Warp Pad's still down!"

"Damn. So the warp pad did break before we left. How are they going to-"

Suddenly, the ground starts to shake, almost sending me falling to the ground but I grab the counter to steady myself.

"What?"

"Are you seeing this too?!" Multiple voices outside can be heard in tandem with the loud and rough shaking. Pieces of the house starts to crumble and debris begins to fall all around us.

"Whoa!" I move back as a rock on the roof lands where I was standing.

"Wha!"

"Wha-" Pearl and Steven avoid the debris as well as the shaking gets rougher.

I grab my AK on the table and head to the door. "Outside!" I yell to the two of them and kick the door open. Steven stumbles out but Pearl is hot on his heels. All three of us go to the balcony railing to see a bad sight, in my opinion at least. Sugilite is walking towards us from the ocean. "Well, looks like she took the long way back." I comment. Everyone down on the beach proceeds to run away from Sugilite as she comes close to the beach

"I'M... BORED!" Sugilite roars out.

"It's Sugilite!" Steven says as I see Pearl head down to the beach.

"What the hell is she doing?" I grit out and hold my rifle in my hands as I make my way towards the two.

"Y-you're back!" Pearl nervously says to the giant gem.

"YOU LEFT ME BEHIND!" She says as she points at Pearl.

"We just thought you didn't need any help. Now why don't you separate, and we can all sit down and relax?" She tries to ease down the fusion as she gestures over to the Beach House and I move beside her.

'Good. Hopefully she can calm-'

"No!" My thoughts are interrupted as Sugilite kicks Pearl away.

"Pearl!" I yell to her as she goes flying back. "What the hell you b-!?" I yell at the fusion but I back flip back as she tries to kick me. I manage to dodge her attack and slide back to Pearl.

"Pearl! Marcus!" Steven yells to us in concern.

"Listen to me! You've been fused for too long! You're losing yourselves!" Pearl tries to reason with the fusion as I subtly click the safety on my AK to off.

"I AM MYSELF! AND I'M SICK OF BEING SPLIT UP! So you better get used to me, baby. AND GET THIS JUNK OFF MY BEACH!" Sugilite bellows out in defiance, stepping on the gym thus destroying it.

Steven struggles over to us. "Why is she wrecking Dad's gym? Why is she attacking you?!" He asks us with genuine concern and confusion.

"Steevveeen." I say warily and wave my hand for him to stay back.

"Get out of here!" Pearl says as she grabs Steven by the collar of his shirt and tosses him away. She summons her spear and gets into a ready stance. "You too Marcus."

"With all due respect Pearl, no." I firmly tell her.

"I'm not asking." She says to gritted teeth and tightens her grip on her spear.

"And I'm not budging." I reply in the same tone and shoulder my rifle, taking aim at Sugilites face.

"WHAT? YOU WANNA FIGHT?!" She asks us but something tells me she already knows our answer and is just toying with us.

"You'll thank me... LATER!" she yells and jumps toward Sugilite. She easily anticipates the attack and hits Pearl away. While my blood boils at seeing Pearl get hit, I stand firm knowing that won't take her down. As Sugilite smiles at the hit, I open fire.

With my gun held strong against my shoulder and my physique, I easily hold the rifle still as I depress the trigger, sending dozens of rounds straight towards Sugilites face without a single one missing. Her smile turns to a gritted frown at the multitude of bullets impacting against her skin. They don't break through but the force of them hitting causes her to flinch hard. A group off my shots hit hard against her visor, shattering it into dozens of pieces and knocking it off her face, now revealing her fierce and angry five eyes.

"YOU THINK YOU'RE SOMETHING?" She yells to us. I go to grab another mag but a rush of air causes me to look up.

Everything goes in slow motion to me as I watch the full force of her weapon come straight towards my body.

*CRASH!*


Pearl watches in horror as her friend takes the full force of Sugilites weapon to his front and crashes hard against the mountain; his form leaving a deep indentation into the rocky structure before he limply leans forward and falls out of the hole, crashing to the ground in a ragdoll state.

"MARCUS!" She cries out at the possibility of him being dead. She stands up to head over to him.

" YOU!" Sugilite intercepts Pearl by kicking her into the air. "AIN'T!" She smashes Pearl into the ground with a strong punch. "NOTHING!" She finishes yelling and brings her weapon up to flatten Pearl but misses. The resulting attack however makes Steven and Greg fly away, landing on the ground hard as the two skid along the ground.

"My muscles!" Steven groans out as the soreness in his muscles are raking his body.

"Steven!" Pearl groans out to the boy. Seeing his weakened form and her opponent, she starts to feel hopeless, kneeling down in the ground and cries at the hopelessness of the situation. "I'm sorry" She whispers to herself at her apparent failure.


'…'


"... Steven, Garnet, Amethyst..." She sniffs, tears running down her face through closed eyes.


'…'


She looks over to the still and beaten form of Marcus. More tears stream down her face as her hand grips the ground tightly.

"Marcus…" she chokes out.


*…Thump-thump…*


" I wasn't strong enough…"


*Thump-thump*


"To protect you."


*Thump-thump*


"I'm not strong enough to do anything..." She continues to cry out her uselessness.

"Come on, Pearl!" She looks up to the side to see Steven lying down on the ground with the megaphone at his mouth. "Don't give up! I know you can take her down!" Steven tries to encourage her.

"I can't..." She says depressingly

"Yes, you can! Come on! You always knew what to do! You gotta show her what you showed me! That you're strong, Pearl! Strong in the REAL WAY!" Steven yells out through tears forming on the corners of his eyes. She looks down though.

"But…"

"HRAAAA!" She looks up and closes her eyes at seeing Sugilites wrecking ball of a weapon come straight for her, ready to end her.

A sudden gust of wind hits her and she flinches, expecting the attack to follow.

*CLANG!*

...

...

...

"You know…" Pearls eyes widen at the voice. She stares up at the person in front of her.

Marcus stands there, his body facing her as he has his arms crossed over his head, holding Sugilites massive weapon from crushing the both of them. His clothing is ripped in several places; he wears a smile on his face, despite the bruises he adorns and the trail of blood leaking out the side of his mouth and face.

"You think yourself weak… but you're not Pearl. You're one of the strongest and most powerful people I have ever known. Don't doubt that." He says calmly, despite holding a couple tons of weight over his head. "Besides, I made a promise I would protect you."


I lower myself a little, "And I…!" I say with increasing crescendo as I push up, throwing the heavy weapon off me for a second before twisting my body around. "… Meant it!" I yell and connect with my right fist against the weapon, my kinect strike overpowering the weight of the weapon and sending it hurtling up high into the sky and back.

"WHOA!" Sugilite cries out in surprise as she still grips her weapon, forcing herself back as well until she falls back into the water.

"Marcu-Wha!" Pearl begins to say but is suddenly cut off as I grabs her bridal style and speed away, picking up Steven along the way to around the corner. I place the two of them down.

"You two okay?"

"Wha- We're fine but you-?!" she tries to say but gestures to my beaten form.

"What happened?" Steven asks from his position on the ground.

"Not important." I quickly say and peak around the corner and pull Greg as he comes around. Once he's out of sight, I spot Sugilite getting out from the water.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" She bellows out angrily, obviously pissed at the stunt I pulled.

"What do we do?" Greg asks quietly so she doesn't hear us.

I look back to them and see the stumped looks on their faces. I close my eyes for a second as I think about everything we have at our disposal. My thinking doesn't take long and I give a hard look to Pearl. "I have a plan."


Sugilite looks around, trying to find her targets and the pests that have been annoying her.

"Hey! Big ugly?!"

*Bang*Bang*

Sugilite grunts as a couple shots come dangerously close to hitting her eyes. She looks to the beach and spots Marcus standing there with his rifle aimed at her. "Lookin' for me?!" He says and shoots a few rounds towards her, making sure he got her attention.

"YOU!" She yells and points towards Marcus with her two right hands. Marcus turns tail and starts running to the back of the cliff the temple resides against. "GET BACK HERE!" She yells out and chases after the hybrid human, completely missing Pearl as she heads to the temple itself.

Marcus continues to run up the back of the mountain with Sugilite hot on his heels. 'Alright, she's chasing after me. Good, good. I need to make sure she sticks to me as I make it to the cliff. Pretty sure I accomplished that by-'

*CRASH!*

"Argh!" Marcus's thoughts are interrupted as he yells out when something big crashes just behind him, forcing him to fly forward and roll on the ground until he lays on his stomach. His AK flew out of his hands and slides along the ground till it falls off the cliff. "Shit. I need to- AHHHHHHHH!" He yells out in pain as something big and massive crushes his left arm. When he manages to get himself under control, he looks to see his arm completely crushed into the ground by a massive foot.

His mind draws a blank at the situation he found himself in before he lets out a strangled grunt as the foot is lifted off his arm, releasing the pressure. He sees a bump forming on his forearm and because he can't move it, it's broken. "Gotcha." A deep menacing voice is heard over Marcus as a giant meaty hand digs into the ground around him and picks him up. He tries to struggle out of the grip but his battered form prevents him from breaking free. He is soon brought before the face of a very pissed off but satisfied fusion gem. "You thought you could get away from me?" She asks menacingly. Marcus goes to talk but Sugilite squeezes her fist, crushing Marcus.

"Ahhhh! Fuck! God damnit!" He cries out in pain as the life is almost crushed out of him.

"You thought you could get away from me?" She says with more malice in her voice.

*Pop*

"AHHHHH!" Marcus groans out as he feels something break inside of his chest. If he had to guess, a rib just broke. Hopefully it didn't puncture his lung.

It's not a good sign as he coughs up a few specks of blood but grits his teeth.

"You thought you could defeat me?" Sugilite grabs Marcus's already broken arm, making him wince.

"You were wrong."

*SNAP!*

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screams his lungs out as his arm is broken even further, his arm bending entirely the wrong way with his elbow shattered. "AHhhhhh… haaaaaa… haaa… haaaa." His screaming dying out until he breathes out heavily. Sugilite lets go of his arm, letting the limb fall limply against Sugilites knuckles.

"YOU ARE NOTHING! You are nothing compared to me! I AM BETTER THAN YOU ALL!" She bellows out towards the injured human. "I-… WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?!" She screams out in a pissed off tone.

"Hahahaha. HAAAA. Hahahahahaha ha ha haaaaaa!" He breathes in deeply from his bout of laughter, making him wince from his broken rib but lets out a sigh. "You think you've beaten me? You think you've won?" He says defiantly towards her with a bloody smile.

"WHAT?!"

"In chess, the two very important pieces that I think that are in chess… are the pawns and the queen. The king is supposed to be protected yeah but you can't make your opponent forget it. It's the key to the game. The key to winning. The pawns are expendable and the most numerous. People tend to forget them and can take out any other piece. The queen is the most powerful piece on the board and is sought after… because she can move anywhere and sneak up on anyone." He begins to explain to the fusion.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" She squeezes a bit more, causing Marcus to groan out.

"Arrrrrgghhhh!..." He grunts and prepares himself as he reaches into his pocket. "I!" He yells into her face. "AM THE PAWN!"

*CLANG!*

"Huh?" Sugilite looks down to see something between her feet on the edge of the cliff. Looking closely, its Pearls spear with something strapped to it. To anyone else, it's a mess of wires and pipes duct-taped together.

To Marcus and Pearl… it's his prototype.

"Pearl," he begins to say, making Sugilite look at him as he holds something in his right hand. "Is my Queen."

He presses a button on his phone.

"Checkmate, bitch." He says with a toothy smile.

*Ring-ring*Ring-ring*Ring-ring*

The IED's phone goes off.

*BOOOM!*


The one IED itself isn't enough to destroy Sugilite… but I bet a fall from a cliff could.

"AHHHHH!" Sugilite yells as the ground she's standing on collapses under feet, sending her falling to the ground and in her panic, letting me go. I quickly push myself away from her with my legs so I don't get crushed by her or she doesn't grab me again. Unfortunately it also pushes me towards a group of sharp rocks.

"Oh shit." I groan out as I close my eyes and bring my good arm in front of me in hopes of lessening the damage.

Something grabs me before I hit the rocks.

"Gotcha!"

Opening my eyes, I see the strong arms holding me aloft and changing my direction suddenly is none other than Pearl. With grace, she manages to land on the ground softly despite my extra weight. Slowly but carefully, she lowers me to the ground, being careful with my injuries as I'm laid against a rock. "Thanks."

"…" The silence from her causes me to look at her. I see her holding her hands to her mouth in abject horror and tear stricken eyes. "Marcus…"

Look down at myself, I can see why she's devastated and horrified at what I look like. Apart of my chest looks slightly caved in, the taste of iron is evident on my tongue, and don't even get me started on my arm. The way how its bent the wrong way and slightly gnarled would make anyone cringe. "Yeah… not looking so good."

"Marcus…"

"Relax Pearl… the injuries look worse than they are but nothings life threatening. It's just painful." I try to ease her mind but she seems to remain indifferent.

"*Sigh* Marcus." She gently lays a hand on my leg. "I should have been faster. If I was… then maybe this wouldn't…" she trails off while looking to the side. I reach to and grab her hand tightly with my still good arm.

"No tears Pearl. No regret. We got the others back, and that's what's important." I say to her. She looks me in the eye as I give her smile to show I'm not disappointed with her. She smiles and squeezes my hand back.

"Is that all you GOT?!" We let go at the loud voice and she turns around to see Sugilite standing up.

"Or not." I comment as Pearl materializes her Spear. 'Jeez, how much more do we need to do before she quits?' I think.

"You think that's enough to beat-" She gets interrupted by her wrecking ball of a weapon landing on her head. With a loud 'poof' noise, Sugilite is gone and Garnet and Amethyst are there on the ground as well.

"Phew." I breathe out at not having to deal anymore wit Sugilites crap.

"Amethyst. Garnet." Pearl breathes out at the sight of her two friends.

"Go." She looks back to me. "Make sure they're okay." I ask her to do.

"But-"

"I'm not going anywhere Peal. I can recover. Make sure they can." I reason with her. She stares at me for a few seconds before she nods.

"Are two you okay!?" She asks the former fusion gems as she runs over to them.

With a sigh, I lie back against the rock and close my eyes, letting myself be at peace for a few moments at the ordeal we all went through.

"You're not dead on us, are you?" I open my eyes to the voice to see Mr. Universe standing over me.

"It's gonna take a lot more than this to take me down, Mr. Universe." I firmly tell him as I try to get up.

"Here, let me help." He reaches under my right arm and slings it over his shoulder, helping me stand with him. "And uhhh, you can call me Greg anytime you know." He clarifies his name status as he helps me over to the gathered gems.

"Thanks… Greg. You're a good man." I thank him.

"Thanks. So are you." I smile at his compliment just as we make it to them.

"I've got a monster headache."

"Suck it up, Amethyst." I grumble out, causing everyone's eyes to turn to me. "You're not the one with a broken arm, dislocated spine, and a broken rib." I list out my most apparent injuries.

"Sorry." She apologizes.

"We're sorry Marcus. Pearl was right." Garnet groans out from her position on the ground.

"Yeah," I say and look to said gem. "Yeah she was." I say tiredly. She blushes and turns away at the compliments. "Also, just know, you're not making Sugilite again. Even if I have to knock one of you out." I sternly tell them in a tone that they know I'm not screwing around.

"Ugh, noted." Garnet grunts out from her abused body.

"Uh... What the heck just happened?!" I hear Lars cry out as both he and Sadie make it back to us. Looking around at the destroyed gym, the deep divots on the ground, the destroyed front of the temple, and even all of our extremely battered forms, I can't help but lightly chuckle, earning confused looks from everyone.

"Life… Lars… this… is our lives." I say as the pain starts to catch up with me now that the adrenaline is starting to dissipate. "My life…" I whisper to myself as I close my eyes.

'And I wouldn't trade it for the world.'

And another anticipated chapter out of the way. Man, that whole chess analogy I came up with right on the spot and man did it feel totally awesome to write. Just a snarky, cocky attitude for Marcus to have in the face of low odds for him and Pearl.

Most of my tests are out of the way right now so I have another month till I have to take another few tests in the span of a few days so hopefully we can expect quicker chapters in the coming weeks.

Also on top of that other fanfic I was thinking of doing, I was also thinking of other things to do involving this story, maybe one where it's a mass collection of side story's, omakes, other scenarios and other off-canon stuff. I was even thinking of other story versions of this one where Marcus meets the gems with a team of his own. I don't know, review or PM me what you guys think I should or shouldn't do once I get this story caught up with the show itself. That's my top priority first and foremost. Any new fics and story's I plan to make or you guys want me to make would be made AFTER this one is caught up and done with.

With that done and as always, have fun reading.