(Make sure you read the last chapter. I'm not sure if a notification email went out signaling the last chapters upload)
Sleep isn't an issue with me. Despite my past, it's just that, the past. While some people have trouble forgetting it, right now I have more pressing matters to deal with and others to help and depend on. Sometimes I do think about the past but its not like I lose sleep for what I've done. I've done both good and bad things in my life but I can hopefully say I did more good.
Right now though, first and foremost, its night.
"The hell? I was pretty wiped when I went to sleep. And it was pretty late." I mutter to myself as I continue to lie down. Pulling out my phone, I see the time is much earlier than when I fell asleep and it's definitely the next day. "Damn. Sleep longer than I thought." I put my phone away and grab the head rest of the front seat. "Alright, guess I better get planning… to…" As I go up, I don't see the dome over my ride. I don't even see any water around me. "The fuck?" I question and shuffle out of my ride. As I slam the door closed, I stare into the vast expanse we traveled from to see the whole area completely dry. Almost like a desert. "What the hell happened?" I question out loud. My thoughts start to point to my hydrokinesis powered friend but even she wouldn't take away the entire Atlantic Ocean would she?
Some worbling noises behind me cause to turn around and look up
And up… and up… and up.
"Oh god. Lapis, what did you do?" I mutter and jog to the giant water-based space elevator she made. As I get closer to the giant spire, I notice that when Lapis pulled in the ocean, she pulled in everything that was also living in it from small fishes to sharks and octopuses. "Lapis!" I yell out her name to the top of the spire.
For a moment, I'm met with only the sloshing water of the spire but I'm starting to see ripples on the surface on it. Soon her face appears in the water in front of me. "Yes… Marcus?"
"Lapis, what are you doing?" I ask her sternly.
"I'm going home Marcus. I plan to stretch the earth's ocean far enough for me to make it back to Homeworld. Don't try to stop me." She says the last part as her face disappears into the water.
"What?!" I ask in disbelief. 'Even with the entire earth's water supply, she still wouldn't have enough water to make it all the way to Homeworld! I don't know the distance but I sure as hell know it's nowhere close by or probably not even in our own solar system.' I walk around as I begin to think about the consequences of Lapis's suicidal plan. 'The worlds fucked up enough as it is. If she drains the places of the world that desperately need water, water starved villages, fire ridden forests, city's and towns would be almost defenseless. Not to mention the sheer imbalance of the ecosystem should she continue with it…' "Oh my god." I moan out as I pace back and forth. "What- what is she- she can't-" I start to sputter erratically at the damage she could cause.
A rumbling noise shakes me from my ramblings. Look towards where we came from yesterday. I see either a bad or good sight, Steven and Connie on Lion's back, and the Crystal Gems in Greg's van. "Great. I knew this was going to be bad." I mutter as they all begin to disembark. I turn back to the spire and slam my fist into the water. "Lapis! You have to give back the water!" I command her.
"Please Marcus! I have to do this!" I hear her voice boom back to me.
"I know you have to go home! But not like this! If you do it this way, you'll kill countless lives, destroy cities, and irreparably damage the earth!" I yell to her, hoping to try and convince her to stop. "And you know I can't stand-by and let you do this." I finish up with a firm say of my position on the matter.
She stays silent through my rant and a little bit after.
The water forms her face again, smaller this time and on level with my head. "You won't help me?" She asks me sadly. I give her a sympathetic look.
"I do want to help you Lapis. I do… but not at the cost of others." I tell her. "Please stop. We can find another way." I plead to her.
Her face takes a sad look before it starts to recede into the water. "So be it." She says as she completely disappears into the water.
I smile, 'Good. Hopefully I was able to get through to-'
My thoughts are interrupted as I am sent flying.
Everyone watches in both surprise and horror as Marcus is sent flying away from the water spire. The Crystal gem team all are forced to duck as the gem is hybrid is sent flying over them where he impacts the side of Greg's van, causing him to flip over the vehicle as well as tip over the vehicle itself.
"Marcus!"
"My van!"
The others give Greg and irritated look at his concern for his van over their friend. He looks nervously at them, "Uhhh, uhh, I mean uhh, Marcus." He laughs nervously.
"Please Lapis!" Everyone redirects their attention to Steven as he begins walking to the spire of water. "Don't do this! We're all Gems, right? Just let us help you." He pleads to the water-controlling gem at the top of the spire.
"You don't understand. Just leave me alone..." She replies to Steven, still not budging on the issue.
"We're not leaving, Lapis." He says and beats his palm's against the waters surface. "Not until you give us back our ocean- Aah!" Steven yelps as a hand grabs the front of his shirt
"I said..." Lapis's voice can be heard as a form begins to push its way out of the water. Once it's fully out, the water form is actually a water clone of Marcus. "Leave me alone!" Lapis yells and stretches the water out of the water clones arms and sends Steven flying back to the others.
"Ah!" He yells as he flys and hit the ground.
Three more water clones of Marcus appear and stand firm in a line.
"Greg, kids, you stay behind us. We'll handle this." Pearl gestures for them to stay back.
"Sounds good to me!" Greg immediately complies and proceeds to hide behind a rock followed by the kids.
The Crystal Gems all summon their respective weapons but the water clones summon the gems weapons as well, with one clone pulling out two of Amethyst's whips but shorter, another pulling out an even longer version of Pearl's spear, the third one knocking its knuckles together to form gauntlets like Garnet's but these adorned with blunt spikes on the end of them and not as bulky and the original one that grabbed Steven pulling out Marcus's dual Katana's.
"Ruh-oh." Amethyst cries out at the ferocity of their opposition.
"Stand together. Don't let them-"
*Fwomp*
Before Garnet can finish her statement, the gauntlet wearing clone rushes her, prepared to separate her from the rest of her team.
*Clang*
Everyone stares at the body standing between Garnet and the clone. "Rah!" He yells and pushes the clone off him.
Marcus stands tall in front of his friends with his Colt Anaconda in his right hand and a massive shield on his left arm.
However not just any shield. The shield Marcus has strapped to his arm is a massive rectangular shaped ballistic shield used by SWAT. Unlike the clear thin ones used by riot police, the ballistic shield has only a horizontal bulletproof glass slit for the wearer to see through it but it is also designed to take more than just bullet as it is able to take massive amounts of abuse and even most close proximity explosives. "Stay out of this." He says behind him before he walks forward. With a suitable distance between the two, he points his revolver at the lead clone.
"Lapis… don't make me." I plead to her one last time. I don't want to fight my friends full on… but I will given no choice.
She gives me no choice as all the clones of me tense up.
"So be it." I mimic her words and cock the hammer back.
They charge.
*Bang*Bang*Bang*Bang*
I fire four rounds into each of them but the only thing it does is just slightly slow them down. 'Hard way then, eh? Bring it.' I holster my revolver and bring my shield up just as the spear and gauntlets impact it. I bring my katana up to deflect the swords away from me but as I do, the whips wrap around my arm and pull me hard, making me crash against the clones attacking the shield and sending me flying to the whip wielder. Smiling, I twist myself in the air and bring one of my legs out to kick it in the face. It sidesteps to avoid my attack but I use my other leg to connect. The water easily passes against my leg and disrupts the form for a bit. I roll on the ground a few times before sliding to a crouch and immediately getting to my feet just as the gauntlets, spear and sword wielders attack me. I meet the punches head on with my shield and deflect the sword away with mine before leaning back just as the spear goes to stab me. Pushing off the gauntlet wearer, I slam my shield against the swordsman, sending him flying back as I go one on one with the spearman.
He tries to slice at me but I deflect the attacks with my shield and try to attack with my sword but the spearman has reach while I have flexibility. I dodge all its stabs and put my shield up to take the slices but I can't get close to properly attack. Leaning back from a spear strike, I bring my shield up behind me to block a sword strike. Without missing a beat, I duck low to the ground and allow the spearman and swordsman to connect attacks with each other before I do a complete 360 and sweep their legs out from under them. They are momentarily in the air and I slice the spearman in half before bringing my shield down and crushing the swords man.
Taking a moment to catch my breath, I dodge backwards as the gauntlet tries to crush me from above. He immediately dashes forward towards me so I block his attack with my shield. He doesn't let up with his punches however and sends a flurry of punches to me similar to Garnets last I fought her, causing me to slide back from the blows. As my feet continue to slide back, they stop when I'm met with rocks and I take the opportunity to retaliate. When both of its fists are on my shield, I push back hard. I send his fists into the air with my shield push back and respond with a Spartan kick to his chest, making him go flying and rolling back on the ground. I quickly look over the scene to see both the spearman and swordsman start to piece themselves back together as the gauntlet wearer stops rolling.
"Great. This should be interesting." I comment and ready myself again.
I quickly duck down as a rock goes soaring over my head. Looking to the left, I see whips flinging two rocks at me. With a quick slice, I cut the first rock down the middle using my sword before brining my body around and destroying the second with a shield bash. The whips begin flying towards me from left and right, impacting the shield with sheer ferocity that would make me cringe if I wasn't pushing back. I use my ballistic shield to take most of the attacks but I use my sword to deflect other attacks off me too. Soon its whips become too long to properly attack me so I take the chance and rush my with a shield bash. I use the majority of my weight on the bash and send him flying back but before he can go far, I twirl around and send a roundhouse kick to his side, sending my flipping back and forth towards the rest of its compatriots.
I stand there breathing for a few seconds as I stare at the state my enemies are in. They all stand back up and look none the worse for wear. 'Shit. This isn't working. I need a new strategy before-' My planning is interrupted as I count three instead of four. 'Wait, where's the fourth o-'
A crack of sand behind me makes me turn around and bring my shield up. Unfortunately I wasn't ready to put my shield up in time and I'm sent flying back by the force of the gauntlet wielders attack.
"Grah!" I yell in pain as the spearman smacks me hard in my unprotected side using the blunt end of his spear, making my flying turn to a complete 90 degree angle. Before I can reorient myself, the swordsman presses the attack and crosses its sword on my shield before slicing them forward, sending my speed twice as fast. "Cah!" Right into a boulder. My body goes rigid from the shock of hitting full force against the rock. I fall to my knees as I struggle to regain myself. "Ahhhh!" I yelp as something hits my right hand, forcing me to release my sword. Looking up, I see it was a whip. Looking next to him, I bring my shield up just as the gauntlet wearer launches its barrage of attacks again on me. Unfortunately this time, I don't have an angle to push back as my entire body pressed against the rock.
*Crack*
My body tenses up as I watch a large crack go up the glass on my shield. Looking through the glass, I watch as he winds his left fist back for a more powerful punch.
My body's too stunned to move. I close my eyes as he punches.
*Boom*
With nowhere else to go, the force of the punch does three things: 1, It completely transfers all energy through me and shatters the rock behind me. 2, it sends me flying through the air before I roll violently along the ground. 3, as I come to a stop, I look through pain filled eyes as my shield slides along to me… in two pieces. The entire thing was broken in two horizontally, effectively making it useless.
"Damnit." I grunt as I grip my sword that slid along with me.
"You can't win Marcus." I look up as the four clones advance on me, each one speaking in unison with Lapis's voice. "Give up now and go home." She asks.
I stare at the clones of me for a little bit before I start chuckling. "Ha ha ha ha hahaaa. Oh Lapis. I'm not giving up." I grip my sword harder and use it to push myself off the ground. "Not when I still breathe… I'm not stopping." I fully stand and spit it out a few bits of blood. "Not you… not the gems… not homeworld… not earth. Until… my life… is extinguished… I 'will' not stop helping my friends." I grip my sword in both hands and widen my stance. "Even if it means knocking some sense into them."
"Then you leave me no choice." She says and all the clones ready themselves.
I grip the handle harder and dig my feet into the sand.
*Crunch*Crunch*
The crunch of the sand next to me makes me tense up but I relax to see its Pearl and Amethyst, ready to fight. Pearl turns her head to me, looks me in the eye and gives me a confident smile and a nod before turning back to the clones with a ready look. I can't help but smile at them.
*Crunch*Crunch*Crunch*
More sand movement to the other side of me makes me look, now seeing Garnet, Steven, Connie and Lion ready as well.
"We're sorry Marcus." Garnet says without looking at me. "We should have told you what we knew."
"And we're sorry we broke your AK." Amethyst says as she tightens her grip on her whip. "We didn't know it was so important to you."
"We're sorry, Marcus." Pearl apologizes as well. With a flourish, she holds her spear elegantly. "But we have you now."
"Guys…"I say in disbelief. They were a bit ignorant of my weapons value to me. I can forgive this once. I nod at their support and turn my attention back to our opponents to see the clones take on the appearances of the gems as well as getting exact replicas of their weapons. Another clone slithers its way forward before morphing into a clone of Steven. Now, there is a water clone of Steven, Garnet, Me, Pearl and Amethyst. After examining our enemies, I turn back and pull out my keys. "Hey Greg!" The man pops his head out from behind a rock. I easily toss him the keys to my truck, which he manages to catch with both hands. "Get in my truck! You'll be safer there." I order him to. He looks at my keys for a second before looking to where my vehicle is parked. Seeing it, he nods a couple times before jogging over to it and getting into the driver seat. With him out of the way and safe, I slowly walk forward a few steps and extend my right arm with my sword out. I turn back to my team and smirk, "Let's go."
Quick as lightning, I shadow step forward and appear in front of the clones, where I let out a war cry and bring in an overhead kinetic strike with my fist directly into the ground in front of them, causing a small shockwave and sending each one flying away from each other. Everyone goes for their respective selves, including me. Dashing forward, I press the attack against my clone self with my single sword style as opposed to my dual swords technique. The clone brings one of its swords up to block my attack, which it does, and tries to hit me with its free sword but I deflect that hit easily. Without the extra weight of either my shield or another sword, I can attack and defend much quicker, negating my opponent's dual sword combat ability.
The clone tries to slice with both swords towards my legs but I deflect both hits before twisting around slicing off its heads. I let out a smile before I quickly drop to the ground as it tries to take off my head. However that also gives it a perfect opportunity to nails me right in the face with its foot. "Oof!" I grunt as I flip back along the ground before gripping the sand with my left hand, forcing me to slide instead of flipping. Standing up, I watch as the clones head regenerates itself. "Pah." I spit out a bit of blood.
*Crack*
I twist my neck sharply, popping the bones in my neck several times and twirling my sword a couple times around me before gripping it with both hands. "Bring it." My challenges answered as the clone jumps at me. We clash just as it comes at me and we exchange a blows a few times. The clone hits me with one attack after another but my speed easily catches each one of its attacks and deflects the blows with a flurry of movements. When I go for its legs, it jumps up to dodge my attack and I do the same. We continue to fight back and forth, pushing each other, making the two of us fight for ground. My attacks don't do much to stifle its attacks while I start to feel fatigued and a couple cuts adorn my shirt. The clone brings both swords forward to slice at me and I jumps up… only for it to feign its attack and bring a leg up instead. "Agh!" I grunt as the foot impacts my stomach and sends me flying back. I slam into another rock hard before I slide down onto my hand and knees. "Damnit. Need a new plan. It just keeps regenerating. Maybe we can-" My talking to myself is interrupted as I look on in horror to my right as the Steven water clone has trapped Connie and Stevens heads in bubbles filled with water. Connie's lost her breath and Steven is struggling to get free. "Guys!" I yell and pull out my revolver, ready to attack again.
I don't get to fire as my truck suddenly barrels in from the side and completely grills the water clone Steven, breaking its stream to Steven and Connie, freeing them. The both of them fall to the ground and begin to cough and gag, catching their breaths and spitting out water.
"Connie!" Steven cries out and moves over to Connie.
"Guys!" I cry out as well and slide over to them. "You two okay?"
"Yeah, *Cough* we're fine." Connie manages to say. I let out a sigh of relief.
"Is this a NORMAL magical mission for you?" We look up to see Greg leaning out of the window of my truck back to us. Amazingly, despite the popped tires, Greg was still able to get my truck moving fast enough to cream the water clone.
'Speaking of, where the hell did it go?' I look around to see if I can spot it but nothing.
"'Cause I'm not so sure how comfortable I am with you going on these any-mo-o-o-re!" Greg begins to tell Steven before my truck is suddenly picked up and thrown by water Steven, along with Greg who is still in it.
"Holy-" I watch as my truck goes soaring into the air before it crashes upside down.
"Dad!" Steven cries out as the three of us run over to him. The window stays in one piece so I try to pry the door open.
It's jammed shut tight. "Damnit!... Hold on Greg! We'll get you-" I twist my body to the side just as sword stabs itself through the space where the door opens up. Quickly, I swing my arm out and backhand the clone of me away from everyone. Once it goes flying away, I look down to still see its sword stuck in my door. Bringing my leg up, I kick the sword.
*Clang*
The sword breaks in half and turns to water but it manages to tear the door right open. "Take care of him." I quickly tell the kids towards Greg and charge the clone. I press the attack on the clone before it manages to reform its missing sword. We exchange blows once again but this time I have a better advantage because of my speed and the clone's lack of second weapon. I continue to slice the clone repeatedly, overrunning its attempts to deflect my attacks as I cut it again and again, the slices appearing on the water body over and over but quickly reforms itself back to normal soon after. None of us make any noticeable marks on us for a few seconds before I jump over and twist around with my sword following up.
*Clang* Both our swords impact against each other, causing us to lock our swords together and hold them like that. We try to push each other but our strength is on par with each other. 'My speed trumps my clone but our strength is equal. I need to figure out a way to keep these things from regenerating in order to win this-'
"I DON'T WANNA FIGHT!"
The loud yell of my friends defiance along with a loud metallic ringing noise makes me flinch. I feel a small quake shake me but for my clone, it completely destabilizes its form and turns to water. "The hell?" I question. Looking up, I notice all the other clones disappear as well. I look over to where I heard Steven's voice and look to an amazing sight. Steven stands there in front of Connie and Greg with a shield in front of him. The pink shield with the rose like symbol and pattern on it leads me to believe it's his summon weapon. Rose Quartz's shield. 'Hm… so that's your mother's weapon.' I think with a smile.
His shield makes a metallic clanging noise as it starts to fold in on itself and disappear. He begins to walk forward towards the spire.
"Steven?" Connie says his name in question. He walks past me and stands next to the spire of water.
"Lapis, I'm coming up to see you. ...So please don't drown me."
"Hold it!"
"Wait, Steven!"
Connie and I try to stop our friend but fail. He grunts as he jumps into the water tower. I'm about ready to jump in and pull him out but I watch some water construct forms under him and lifts him to the top of the tower.
"Steven!" I yell as I watch him go up.
"Marcus!" I turn back at the mention of my name and see Connie, Lion and the gems run up to me. "What's going on?! Where's he going?" Pearl asks frantically.
I look back to the spire and stare at it for a little bit. "Hopefully…" I turn back to my friends. "To talk some sense into her." I mutter. I walk up to the spire. "Lapis! I'm coming up too!" I call out. I get no confirmation or denial from her. "Stay here." I tell them and walk into the water.
"Marcus!" They call out to me as well but I press on. The water completely envelops me as I step in. The whole thing feels absolutely surreal and actually kind of relaxing… at least until a shark spots me.
'Oh son of a-!' My frantic thoughts are suddenly interrupted when just as the shark comes at me, I'm suddenly thrust upwards. The water completely rushes past me and I start to feel a little light-headed from the rush of the water around me. 'Hope I don't get the bends.' I steady myself on the water hand I'm standing on and do what I can to calm my breathing while on my trip in the water.
"*Gasp*!" I gasp out as my head finally hits air. The water hand turns to water before me and collapse on a harder surface tension of the water around me.
"Don't you know anything, Steven?" I look up to see Steven encompassed in a bubble of water with Lapis right in front of him. 'Looks like I came up just as a conversation is taking place.' "Your friends, they don't really care about other Gems. All they care about is the Earth. But I never believed in this place..." Lapis says a little angrily before looking up towards space. She begins to walk away from him and finally releases him from his bubble.
"Wha... ?" He questions in confusion. I move over to him and crouch down.
"You good?" I ask. He nods before looking towards Lapis. She sits down some feet away from us as she continues to stare into space. Steven gets up and walks over to her while I can't help but look over the side of the tower. "Whoa." I say in awe as I see just how high up we are. Looking to just how high up we are, how much of the earth I can see and the practical closeness of the space, we must be just under the first layer of the atmosphere since we can still breathe here. "Maybe I should try to develop some kind of rebreather so I don't have to worry about lack of air sit-"
"I just want to go home..." I break myself from my muttering to focus back on my friends.
"I know how important home can be." Steven begins to say, hopefully to maybe appeal to her. "But that's why I'm here…" He glances back to me as I walk up behind them. "Why we're here. You took the ocean away, and the ocean is an important part of our home."
"He's right Lapis." I say as I sit down next to her. Both of them look to me as I stare out to space. "I know full fledged gems don't need to eat, sleep, or drink to live… but humans do. Earth is… in a somewhat imbalance state right now. Some people don't… get the resources they need to live and the ocean…" I turn to look at her directly. "It's a very important part of the planet, Lapis. More than I think you realize." I say somberly.
"I'm only using the ocean because my gem is cracked." She tries to reason to us. "If I just stretch it far enough..." She begins to say but sighs in defeat. "This is never going to work." She hugs herself in sadness.
I slowly touch her shoulder, making her look at me with a little bit of sadness in her clear white eyes. "We'll find a way to help Lapis. We'll-" The gears in my head start to turn as her words begin to click together. "Wait, your gem s cracked?" I ask her. She nods and turns the top part of her body to the side to show me the gem on her back. The crack is clear as day. My eyes widen as I slightly lean over to look at Steven. The happy look on his face tells me he figured it out as well. I can't help but slap both my hands onto my face. "I'm such an idiot."
"Why?" She asks me but I just shake my head at my obliviousness of the whole situation and the possibility of all this fighting being avoided.
"I can fix your gem! I have healing powers." Steven proclaims loudly and happily.
"Wait, you have healing powers?" She asks incredulously at him.
"I know, right?" He replies.
"And you knew?" She asks me now.
"Yeeeess." I groan out and shake my head some more. "I was oblivious to your gem being cracked and if I just told you he could heal you then maybe…" I let out a strangled groan as I flop onto my back. "God damnit."
"Oh… well, what should I..." She begins to say as she turns her back to Steven.
"Oh, uh, sorry. This might be a little weird." He says uncomfortably while rubbing the back of his head.
"What?" She asks in confusion.
"Heeeeeey, yoooouuuu." I say somewhat awkwardly as I quickly lean up and stare at her face.
"What are you doing?" she asks in confusion. Slightly looking behind her, I see Steven licking his hand.
"Oh you know. I just wanna talk. Maybe get to know you, find out what you like, distractyoufrommyfriend, ask you what you love to do…" I trail off, coming up short on what to say.
"Wait wait wait. What was that about-"
*Splat*
"Ughhhhhhh." She shudders.
"Yeeeeeaaaahhh, not a pleasant feeling I can imagine." I tell her. She freezes for a second before her eyes begin to glaze over. Steven walks a few steps away from her so I join him as we see her gem begin to glow and heal itself. Her gem is restored before us. She turns back to us I instantly notice her eyes have become what would define normal. Now they're blue and she smiles at us.
"Woooow." I say in awe as Steven lets out a gasp.
"Thank you, Steven!" She thanks him immediately. I don't try to correct her or signal Steven to give me credit because let's be honest, it was all him.
"No prob, Bob." He says as he wipes his spit-covered hand on his pants.
I alo can't help but notice how much silence there is when Steven said that. "... It's Lapis." She says, not realizing what it actually meant.
"It's a metaphor Lapis. He knows your name really isn't Bob." I tell her to clear things up.
"Oh, right." She says embarrassingly with a small blush.
"Yeah, its fine. Well we should probably be heading home just as you will be. C'mon Steven." I wave the kid over to me so we could prepare to head down.
"Coming." He replies.
"Wait." A cold hand grabs my wrist. Looking down to it and up the arm, Lapis stopped me. "Could I… talk to you?... Alone, please." She asks of me. She doesn't look directly at me and is staring at the floor instead.
"Oh, uh, okay." I agree and look over to Steven. "Hey man, could you… chill over there for a second while Lapis and I talk?" I point over to the other side of the platform we're standing on.
"Okay." He simply says and walks over to his destination. I watch as he stands near the edge and lie down so he could look over the edge.
"Alright, so what did you-" I'm interrupted as Lapis suddenly brings me into a hug. My eyes widen at the sudden contact but I calm myself and return it.
"I'm sorry, Marcus." She apologizes.
"For what?" I ask her.
"F-for the fighting. I'm sorry I attacked you like that. You were my friend and I just-"
"Lapis." I pull her off me and hold her at arm's length, making sure she looks at my face. She stops her frantic talking and stares at me. "It's okay. No permanent damage to me or the others." I pat her shoulders. "Water under the bridge." She gives me a confused look at my words. "Another metaphor. It basically means I'm past the whole thing."
"Oh, okay. That's good." She says with a little happiness in her voice.
"Yeah. Yeah, its all good." I say and look over to Steven. He seems to be looking intently over the edge and point around, no doubt maybe trying to find his home or something else he might recognize.
"I'm still sorry though."
"I know."
"About the fighting,"
"Nothing permanently broken."
"About your shield,"
"I can piece it together."
"Betraying your friendship,"
"You didn't."
"And- Wait, what?!" She asks in surprise at my last statement.
"You didn't betray me." I firmly tell her with a smile.
"Bu-but-"
"Lapis," I quickly interrupt her before she starts stuttering. "You have been trapped for I don't know how long. The prison you were in sounds like hell to me and to top it all off, this isn't your home." I look out to space. "Somewhere out there is." I point into space in general."
"But I-" I raise my hand to stop her.
"Lapis… I've had some friends for sometime over the years. I understand the situation you're in. I know how you feel being somewhere where you think you don't belong. I'm not going to stop being friends with you just because you're still trying to figure out what you're going to do." I firmly tell her, making sure she knows that I meant what I meant. Her mouth opens and closes for a second before I let out a small chuckle, "Besides, it's been awhile since I faced someone one-on-one like that. Usually I fight monsters several times bigger than me. Going up against someone on equal terms like me… it was actually nice now that I look back on it." 'The exhilaration of that fight was pretty cool. I should really sword spar with Pearl. She can give me a run for my money. Maybe some sparring with Garnet. Give her a chance to get back at me for the humiliating defeat I gave her-'
And Lapis interrupts me again with another hug. I smile and return it. "I can't thank you enough for your help Marcus." She tells me and I notice she's slightly crying.
"It's alright." We break the hug. "I got your back Lapis." I tell her.
She gives me a comforting smile and carefully wipes the tears from her eyes. She turns around and looks at space for a bit before right before my eyes, two water construct wings appear on her back, emanating from her gem.
"Whoa." I quickly say. I take a step back in case she prepares herself to take off but instead she turns back to me with a smile.
"You know, you could come back with me? I have more than enough strength to carry you all the way to Homeworld if you want." She offers to me. I stare at her for a few seconds before I shift my attention to space.
'Homeworld… I can go to the gem home planet. I can find some definite answers to my life. To how my mother is. Maybe find records about the war and so much more!' A smile starts to form on my face at the amount of info and tech I could find… but it peters off soon after. 'But… if I leave… I leave some of my friends. I leave the planet I've lived on. The place I've defended monsters from. The place I…' My train of thought stops as I come to a decision.
"Thank you Lapis. But I'm afraid I have to decline." I politely tell her.
"Oh." Her mood visibly deflates at the fact she's going home alone. I reach over and gently lift her head from under her chin so she can look at me.
"It's not just because I'll be abandoning people who consider me family here. But there's also some biological and physical aspects that'll prevent me from going as well. For one thing, I need oxygen in order to survive out there or I'll suffocate. If I don't have something to completely cover my entire body from space itself, then my blood will boil me alive. Not to mention I have no idea how long it would take for us to actually get to Homeworld. Food and water would be an issue as well." I explain to her why I can't go. "Let's be honest Lapis. Even if we manage to get all that stuff, I'll be a massive burden on you the whole ride there and I'm pretty sure you can't carry all that." She looks down at the hopelessness of me going with her. I gently pat her shoulder, making her look at me. "Lapis. Get going." I tell her with a head nod towards space. "You've been gone for too long. Stuck in one place for too long. Enjoy your freedom. Don't let me hold you back." I say with a hand wave to the void of space. "Besides you know where I live. Come visit when you get the chance. Or send a message. Whichever." I shrug. She looks at me for a silent few more seconds before staring intently at space. She does that for a little bit before looking at me again.
"Okay, Marcus. I don't like it but… I'll go." She says a little sadly but resigns to head on home.
"Good." I say and look to space. "Good. Now be careful on your journey because chances there might be some black holes and-"
"Mwh."
I freeze up. All coherent thoughts completely leaving my mind as I feel a set of lips plant themselves on my cheek. The kiss is soft and a little cold but pleasant nonetheless. I stand frozen there for a few seconds before I slowly turn to Lapis with my mouth agape. "Thank you. Both of you."
"No problem." I almost jump out of my skin at Steven's words.
"How did you-"
"Bye." Before I could questions Steven's stealth capability, Lapis says her farewell and jumps up. We both watch as she flaps her water wings in the air towards the void of space.
"See ya." I quietly say. I also can't help but lightly touch the spot where she kissed me. I smile. 'There she goes. She's gone. She's finally heading home. Good, that's good. She needs to head home. Earth isn't her home and she-'
"Wait, if she made the tower, what's keeping it from-"
*Rumble*
I look sternly at Steven. "You just had to say something." I tell him.
Before he can retort, the tower rumbles even harder and the platform we are standing on collapses away, more so for Steven. "I'm Sooooorrrrrrryyy!" He screams as he falls to the planet.
"Steven!" I call out to him. I lean forward and push myself after him. "I'm coming!"
"Aaaaahh! Whoooaaa-aaaah!" He screams as he jerks all around from the falling pieces of the tower.
'Almost there… almost there…' I straighten myself out and head straight for the kid. Thankfully, his flailing about makes him lose speed while I gain some. I extend my arms out and grab him. "Gotcha!"
"Marcus!" He says in surprise and grips me tightly.
"I gotcha! I gotcha! Hold on tight!" I tell him to as I reorient myself to have my back face the ground. 'Fuck. This is gonna hurt.' I think as I mentally try to prepare myself for the impact on the planet. The times I've landed on the ground from impossible heights I was able to because I landed on my feet and I was prepared. Now I'm falling from space without my feet. 'This is really gonna hu-'
My thoughts are interrupted as I watch a pink portal open up before us. Connie and Lion emerge from said portal. "Grab my hand!" She yells to us with an extended hand. Steven and I both reach out to grab it but we continue to fly back away from her, our combined weight preventing them from being able to catch up with us. "No!" She cries out as we continue to move away.
"Connie!" Steven yells out her name. "Marcus! What are we going to do?!" I looks back to me and asks. I look all around us a few times, seeing anything that I could use to slow us down. I can't move myself to hit the water blocks to slow our descent, not with him and me-
An idea sparks in my mind. One that I'm sure Steven wouldn't like. I turn him around and hold him at arm's length. "Take care buddy!"
"Wha-?!"
"Ngh!" I yell as I plant both my feet on his chest and gently but forcefully push him towards Connie and Lion. The opposing force propels me faster towards the ground but Connie manages to grab Steven.
"Marcus!" I hear him call out to but I ignore him and look to the planet.
I fly down the collapsing spire at almost supersonic speed, at least that's what it feels like. After I managed to push Steven to Connie, it sent me flying away from them even harder, preventing any hope of them grabbing me because of my speed at heading to the ground. I thin out my body as much as I can, turning myself into a human bullet so I have an easier time in changing my trajectory but at the cost of speed. I cross my arms in front of my face to protect myself from the blocks of water around me. I purposely aim for the falling blocks of water to slow my descent as much as I can.
The water hits hard against me but I don't stay in them long as I make human sized holes in them at the speed I go. 'Guess it's true at what people say, "Hit water at a high enough speed or high enough height, you'd might as well be hitting concrete."' Right now the water impacting against me feels like I'm hitting stone but gets less hurtful with each hit.
Before long, I'm getting pretty close to the ground at this point and my speed as drastically reduced. Now I'm no longer heading to the ground at an angle but now I'm free falling. Instead of bullet form, I extend my arms and legs out to slow my descent even more. Now in free fall form, I can still manage to reorient myself around to the water blocks but I can't go too slow, otherwise the ocean will start to form again and I'll really hit it like concrete.
Everyone at the bottom of the spire look up at the collapsing building, looking to see if they can spot their friends anywhere, Greg in a more worried sense at the safety for his child. A little while after Connie and Lion, left they teleport back with Steven on them.
"Steven!" Greg cries out from his position next to Pearl because of his broken leg at seeing his son safe and sound but also in worry at the collapsing building.
"Dad!" Steven cries out and hugs his dad.
"Steven!" Pearl gets his attention. "Where's Marcus?!" She asks worriedly.
"He's still falling!"
"What?!" The gems all ask him in surprise.
"They were falling too fast!" Connie begins to explain. "He pushed Steven away so I could grab him but he was sent falling faster to the ground!"
"What do we do?!" Steven asks the gems. They look into the air in order to try and find their friend but see nothing at first.
"There!" Amethyst points at a block of water that completely breaks apart as something impacts it hard. Garnet prepares herself to jump to catch their friend but he falls faster than anticipated. Several feet away from them, something impacts the ground.
"Marcus!" Everyone yells as they hobble over to the crater. More water continues to hit the ground around them and immediately begins to rise above their ankles. The crater is no better as it fills up again. They make it to the edge and look in.
Mayor Dewey continues to cry while still pouring water onto the sand via the hose. His haggard form makes him look outright horrible until water begins to splash against him. "... Huh?" He questions after noticing the water.
"Yes! Babe city, here we com- Whoa!" Lars's dreams of seeing women in bikini's are suddenly interrupted as Sadie simply pushes Lars into the now returning ocean in annoyance.
Elsewhere, a giant pink bubble made by one Steven Universe slowly floats out of the water with everyone one that left to go see Lapis, plus one, along with the vehicles side by side with each other. As soon as the bubble completely comes out of the water and on dry land, he unbubbles it. With a thud, both vehicles land roughly on the ground, with Garnet, Amethyst and Lion standing atop Greg's van while everyone else was riding on the back of Marcus's truck and Marcus and Pearl are in the front seats.
"That's how you do it!" Amethyst compliments the young human-gem. Everyone lets out gasps and grunts as well as laughter all around at the situation everyone's well-being.
Well for the people they're alright but the vehicles aren't in as good a shape. Greg's van has some slight dents to it but nothing to warrant repairs. Marcus's truck however falls apart even more now that it's out of the bubble. The tires completely come off axles, the doors either pop off or hang on barely, and all the windows are completely cracked or broken.
"Ehehehe, well look on the bright side Marcus," Pearl begins to say to the driver. "At least it can't get any worse."
*Boom*
Everyone jumps as a loud noise breaks through the calm atmosphere around them. The source of the loud noise: the trucks hood shoots open as a large billow of white smoke emanates from the engine block. "Ugh." Marcus groans as he slams his face into the ring of his steering wheel.
"Look!" Connie's voice breaks Marcus out of his slump and makes everyone look down the beach to see a large crowd of people running to them. Steven jumps out of the back of the truck and goes to greet the crowd but Mayor Dewey immediately embraces him followed by the crowd. The citizens of Beach City begin cheering and laughing at seeing the ocean finally returned to them. Marcus goes to open his door but his mood deflates even more as the door falls to the ground. The sailor Yellowtail helps Greg stand after he gets out of the back of the truck because of his still broken leg. Connie laughs a little at the show of affection that Steven is getting from the citizens, especially from the mayor, and Amethyst can't help but hug Lion.
Marcus however distances himself from everyone by walking over to the waters edge. He sighs at the memory of seeing his friend leave the planet, his broken shield and his destroyed vehicle. He looks down and watches as his shield washes up on the shore at his feet and leans down to pick up the pieces. "We're sorry."
He turns back to see Pearl and Garnet walking up to him. "We should have had more faith in you." Garnet tells him.
"It's fine." He reply's.
"No it's-"
"Garnet." He interrupts her. "Fact of the matter is, this is the first time we've come to blows and I think I can forgive you this time. Especially since you were oblivious to Lapis's prison…" He turns his head slightly to look at them sideways, "Right?"
"Yes." Garnet agrees.
"We really are sorry. We didn't know you would be willing to leave like that because we wouldn't tell you. I guess we didn't give you much to go on by keeping quiet." Pearl tries to reason. He looks at them for a few more seconds, staring at them before he sighs and fully turns to them.
"*Sigh*, realistically guys, I can't be mad you and you can't be mad at me. The army that protects this planet isn't exactly filling with members and I'm too much of an asset to you guys to just piss off like that." I try to reason to them about not making me mad. True, my skills have really helped them out more times than I can count. They also need me should they require specific equipment or to keep certain humans off their backs. "Plus," He looks over to Steven who is still being manhandled by the crowd and smiles. "You guys are the closest people I have to a family. I think I can forgive a few squabbles." He simply says with a shoulder shrug. "From now on, we don't keep secrets that could endanger lives. Whether ours or others, we come clean. Personal past moments I think we can understand keeping secret for now but if something comes back from our past that tries to hurt us, we come clean." He extends his hand for a shake. "Deal?"
"Deal." Garnet agrees with a smile and shakes his hand.
*Pop*Pop*Pop*
Albeit a bit roughly as her grip pops the bones in Marcus's hand in multiple fingers and his wrist. "Don't think I forgot the fight we had before you left. I intend to have a real one so you're not going anywhere." She firmly tells him while still keeping the smile and grip.
"I wouldn't miss it." He agrees with the same smile. She lets him go and turns back to pry Steven from the crowd. "Ahhhhhhhhhh." Marcus quietly breathes out at the pain coursing through his nearly broken hand as he grips it with the other.
"You okay?" Pearl asks the in-pain hybrid as he almost falls to his knees.
"Ahhhhh… yep. Yeah I'm good." He reassures her as he shakes his hand free of any pain and flexes it. "I guess I deserved that. That's what I get for basically kicking that gem in the face you know? Ow." He says.
"Hm hm, yes I believe so." She lightly chuckles at his distress. The two then delve into a slight uncomfortable silence between them since this is the first time they are alone since Marcus's abrupt departure before.
"Listen, Pearl." He begins to say. "I'm sorry about- Oh!" He is interrupted as instead of letting him finish, she hugs him instead.
"I'm happy your back Marcus." She says through closed eyes. He hesitates a little before returning the hug back wholeheartedly. They stay like that for a few seconds before they both let go. "I don't know if you realize it, but you've made quite an impact on all of us." She looks over to the group people as Garnet is holding Steven high above her head in the middle of everyone.
"Yeah, I guess I did." He agrees with a smile. If it wasn't for Steven telling him how he was family before he left, there could have been a higher chance that Marcus would have left with Lapis.
Speaking of Lapis, he looks up to the sky from where his friend departed. "So, Lapis made it off planet." Pearl says as the two of them stand side-by-side and stare at the sky.
"Yep." Marcus simply says.
"What do you think this mean for us?" Pearl asks her friend.
He purses his lips, thinking for a sec at the ramification of him letting the trapped gm leave the planet. "We wait and see." He answers.
Satisfied with the answer, she turns back and leaves him to his thoughts. The crowd continues cheering as they follow Garnet while carrying Steven above them all. He notices that he's looking into the sky as well.
"Good luck out there, Lapis." Marcus says to himself. He tucks the pieces of his shield under his arm and walks back to the temple.
'Wherever you are.' He thinks, almost mirroring Steven's tone and words as well.
Sorry for keeping you guys waiting like this. To be honest, the whole 'Reviews not showing up' thing was really freaking me out so I may have gotten lazy in writing this next chapter. Not lazy as in content, which I hope is alright and still good for you guys, but lazy as in actually writing it.
Two sets of good news is, one of my teachers cancelled class for the next two week for us to catch up on our work, which I don't need to, so while I don't have to do any work for that class, it gives me that much more time to work on this story for you guys. I'll do what I can to get the next couple chapters out for you guys. I'm really excited for the next set of chapters and I hope I continue to entertain you guys.
The second good news is that the review system is working again so go ahead and review to your heart's content. Hopefully it'll stay good for a good long while now. I have noticed the review system still isn't perfect and there are a few moments where the reviews still glitch out but all the reviews everyone uploaded during the term when the reviews weren't coming up at all, they are there now. So at least it's not a permanent thing.
Also I don't think I ever apologized to you guys about the grammar issues that tend to pop up. I apologize for that and I'll do what I can to limit that from happening but if the issue ever gets too bad that you can't stand to read it, tell me and I'll try to crack down on it. However you have to realize that that might also limit the quickness for which I upload my work. Sorry.
With that, see you later and have fun reading.
