I want to apologize for a mistake I did the previous chapter regarding Ruby's weapon. As it turns out the Ruby Eyeball was the one that had the dagger and it was the Crystal Gem Ruby that had a gauntlet for the weapon. I guess I never really noticed our Ruby actually pulling out a weapon while Eyeballs was a pretty significant occurrence considering she nearly killed Steven with it. Plus the situation when Ruby pulled out the dagger at the end of the previous chapter kind of felt more intimidating for her and Marcus to threaten each other with cutting their throats you know. I'm gonna leave it like that for now and maybe change it in the future but I'm gonna focus on the future for now. In any case, on with the show.


A dozen minutes pass and still nothing with either of our friends but we go ahead and exchange names after we paused at another hallway. I was right to call her by her Gem name, as if there are Gems with other names, since she confirmed what she's called. In the short time we've been working together, she was really freaked out and tense about finding Sapphire because at every turn and potential place that held prisoners, she was either really hopeful at finding something or completely frantic in her search. I had to hold her back a couple times to avoid getting spotted by the roving robonoids or yelling out again. I can tell she's really getting anxious, frustrated, whatever about the whole and desperately wants to find her significant other considering how much she keeps muttering Sapphires name.

"Ooooh! Where is she?!" Ruby frustratingly says from behind me as I peek around another hallway.

"Relax, we'll find her." I say to try to ease her frustration about the situation. "If she's on this ship then we'll eventually find her." I calmly explain.

"But I don't want eventually! I need to find her now!" She accentuates her anger by punching the wall.

"Hey!" I reel around and stare at her with anger in my own eyes. "My friends are all in the same boat as Sapphire is and I'm just as pissed as you are about finding them! So please calm down or else you alert them to our presence and then what? They go after us and we'll never be able to get them off this ship understand?!" I whisper angrily to her about the gravity of the situation and the consequences. She stares at me in frustration before reluctantly nodding. "Good." I look out again one last time. "Coast is clear."

With that, we continue on our way but this time Ruby is quieter although still frustrated by the whole thing. I know how she feels. My friends and family are still trapped somewhere on this ship and man do I want to find them already and get them out of here, while also possibly chopping up a certain into tiny pieces. The other… well I'll just knock her out. She's more annoying than really a hazard. That's why we increase our speed as much as we can to search the place more without getting caught.

Thing is though, her footsteps are pretty loud while mine seem to be barely making any audio at all. I remember the times before when I've tried to remain stealthy when the situation called for it but now seems different for some reason. I have no idea if it's because I'm sneaking with someone else and its comparison issues but still.

"God damnit. Where the hell is everyone? I was hoping to run into Steven already… but…" My sentence trails off as we come across a frustrating sight.

"What the—" Ruby gasps out at where we are.

"Son of a—" I growl out as we come to an open windowed roof area that leads to a dozen other directions.

"Whaaa… where do we go?" She asks while looking at all different entrances.

"Gaaaaa." I groan as I try to find any sort of way that indicates where we should go but as I look around at all the doorways, there's absolutely nothing. 'Seriously? This is really starting to piss me off.' I think and close my eyes to think. "Alright, alright let's think. Try to recall all the twists and turns you made and the outlay of the ship as best you can. I've been mapping the same thing with me so hopefully we can recall at least some direction we haven't gone to find our—"

"Marcus!"

"Huh?" I question at the sudden call of my name. Looking back to where I'm called from, my eyes widen as I see Steven smiling with another Gem with him. I don't care about her at all as I focus entirely on my brother. "Steven!" I call out his name and run up to him.

"Ruby!"

"Sapphire!" The other gems with us go to their own and embrace each other as Steven and I do the same.

"Steven!" I quickly scoop the kid up and embrace him in a tight hug. "Oh god my brother." I cry out and after a few more seconds of our embrace, I place him down on the ground and look at him. "Steven I… I'm sorry I… about earlier I wasn't in my right mind and I should have gone with you and I—"

"Marcus," He interrupts my rambling with a hand to my shoulder, stopping me cold. "It's alright. You're here now. That's the important part." He sincerely says to me with a smile.

Thanks to his words, my guilty mind lessens considerably and I return his smile. I place a hand on his shoulder, "Thanks man. I appreciate it." He gives me a toothy smile, no doubt because I'm no longer in my funk anymore and I'm happy about that. The two of us turn to our comrades and see that they are still embracing each other with tears threatening to break through their eyes.

They push each other to arms length and stare. "Did they hurt you?" Ruby asks Sapphire.

"No, no, I'm okay. Did they hurt you?" She reassures her friend before asking the same question back.

"Who cares?!" Ruby says with a smile and tears pooling under her eyes, very happy with the idea of being with Sapphire back than her own safety, something I kind of think of on occasion as well.

"I do!" Sapphire however does care about her friends well-being and voices it. To add to that, she kisses away Ruby's tears. 'Aww, that's actually sweet.' I can't help but think as I cross my arms at seeing the couple so happy together.

In their moment of happiness, Ruby picks up Sapphire and proceeds to twirl the two of them together in repeated circles, laughing all the way. I smile warmly at their open display of affection for one another. 'Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a couple so happy as these two right now than any other time.' For a moment that's all they do in their moment of happiness and while it's nice, we need to get out of here. "Hey you two this is nice and all but we really need to—" I start to tell them why we need to get going but they ignore me and to my surprise, the two of them start glowing. My eyes widen at the prospect and when I look down to Steven, he's in awe as well at what's going on. Turning back to the two, they are both completely glowing and their forms start shifting around and coming together. Their laughs start to overlap one another and the combined voices start to sounds somewhat vaguely familiar. 'Wait, that sort of sounds like…' My train of thought is derailed altogether as they finally form their fusion: Garnet.

I'm left completely speechless as she lets out a hardy laugh in mid-air and comes back down to us before landing roughly in front of the two of us, which the shake of it causes me to fall next to Steven. "Steven! Marcus! Thank you!"

"Garnet! You're a fusion!?" Steven gasps in complete surprise at the idea of one of our friends being a fusion all along.

"Son of a…" I'm kind of in the same boat with Steven on the surprised-to-all-hell cruise.

"Aw, I'm sorry. We didn't want you meeting us here like this." Garnet apologize to the both us at the apparent impromptu meeting but we aren't really all that beat up over it. Frankly I'm just happy to see Garnet again safe and sound… with a bit of an upgraded appearance since the last time I saw her. She looks more… purplish than before by I digress. It's good to see her… them… 'Crap.'

"Well, did we make a good first impression?" Steven asks her.

"Oh Steven." She carefully cups the side of his face in a comforting manner. "We already love you." She sincerely says to him, making him smile.

'That's good. First impressions are-… Oh.' "Uhhh…" I groan warily as I remember the first meet with me and Ruby.

"Yes Marcus. We love you too." Garnet notices my slight distress and says as she stands up.

"Even though…?" I let the question hang as I look to the side as I remember the uncomfortable first meeting with Ruby.

"Yes, you're good."

"Oh thank god." I breathe in relief and lie flat on my back knowing I'm not screwed with her. Garnet lets out a few chuckles before coming into my view and offering me a hand. Taking it, she easily lifts me onto my feet with ease. "Well, now that that's taken care of, let's get the others and—"

"Where is she!?"

'Oh fuck.' I look down in the direction of the voice and I already feel my anger flaring at who it is. "Jasper." I growl out her name as I clench my fingers into fists.

"Your right. Steven, find the others and get to the control bridge." Garnet says to Steven.

My anger starts to reach new peaks as I remember what she did, what she told me and what she— "Go with him."

My anger turns to surprise as Garnet places a hand on my shoulder. I turn to her and look at her with disbelief. "What?! But I—"

"Marcus…" She says my name in a calm tone, making me shut up and stop any form of complaint from coming forth. "I need a rematch with her… and I remember what happened with Pearl."


*Poof*


I inwardly groan as I remember my actions when Pearl was destroyed, right in front of everyone. Garnet wasn't… around to see what I did when it happened to her. "Relax." She breaks me from my struggle with her voice. As I look up, I see a smile on her face, one filled with determination and shows she's ready. "I'm ready now."

I stare at her and can tell that she's sure of this new engagement with Jasper. She's not cocky or really sure of herself on that she'll win. But she's confident.

I however want to kill Jasper. 'I really want to hurt her, to torture her and make her regret ever being made and—'

"No." I tear myself away from my thoughts and take a step away from them.

"Marcus I know your angry but I need you too—"

"No no no no… not that." I quickly stop an argument from forming from Garnet thinking I said no to her but in reality I said it to me. My mind was starting to get to some… dark places on her and I can't… I can't fuel it. I close my eyes and place my hand over my heart, steadying myself as much as I can. Once I feel comfortable again, I turn back to my friends and nod. "Alright, I'll go. Good luck with her."

Garnet looks at me weirdly but nods nonetheless. She turns to Steven, "Good, get going you two."

"But I don't know where they are." Steven points out and come to think about it, I don't know either. I went nearly everywhere, I think, with Ruby and we didn't find any clue or indication as to where we could find the others. However Garnet proceeds to give us a massive cheat code by kissing Steven on his forehead. It doesn't look like much to me but the starry expression in eyes leads me to believe he has what we need. "Future vision..." 'Of course.' I chuckle at the new information. "Wait, are you gonna be able to beat her on your own?" He suddenly asks her.

"It's okay, Steven. I'm never alone." She tells him with a smile. With that he nods to her before looking to me. We both nod and I follow him to another entrance. "Marcus." I stop just before I turn the corner to look at her. "Good luck."

I stare at her for a bit before I return the smile and nod back. My smile disappears before nodding behind her. "Looks like your gonna need it." I call out and continue chasing after my guide.


After he leaves, my happy demeanor disappears and I look down in sadness.

"Not as much as you will, Marcus." I mutter grimly.

The benefits of being able to see the future are grand and have helped us out some many times before… but it's even worse and a burden when you see the people you love get hurt… and can do nothing to help them.

"Good luck… Marcus." I wish him luck one more time, more so for the future than now.

"Oh great."

'Show time.' I turn around to meet my opponent. Someone I very much want a rematch with.


"You know where we're going Steven?!"

"Positive!"

"…I'll take your word for it." I toss down the head I took off the bipedal robonoid to the ground and continue moving with my brother. I stay as close to him as I can to make sure that if anymore of these new robonoids appear I would be able to take them out without him getting caught by them. So far I've caught them off guard so we haven't really seen just what their capable of but I have no intention of finding out just what they can do.

We continue to make our way towards where the others are and Steven has proven capable of the temporary future vision given to him by Garnet because we see them real soon. The two of them are in side-by-side cells looking defeated but they perk as they see the two of us running up to them. Without a word, Steven goes to make an entrance for Amethyst and I do the same for Pearl. The two of them clamber out of their cells and nod to the both of us. Without another word, Steven leads us off to the next phase of our destination: The Bridge, or control room, whichever you prefer but still the same. As soon as we make it to a couple of doors that are much different than what I've seen, I can only surmount that it's to our destination. Pearl tries to open it by using the control panel on the side of the door but a red error buzz means she fails. She groans in frustration and pulls out her spear before trying to wedge the door open. As Steven and Amethyst help her, I look closely at the panel for anything I can do. I'm about to rip it off and fiddle with the wires but the words look familiar. To my surprise, the words start to make sense to me and I can understand them. 'Wha-… but how did—' I shake my head of the useless thoughts and start my hacking of the panel. The others are about to question what I'm doing but as I implant the last code, the door suddenly opens. They look on in surprise at my skill but shuffling inside gets our attention foremost. Peridot presses two buttons, one igniting an alarm that blares throughout the ship but no sound goes off, just lights, and another allows her to pull out another one of those Gem Destabilizers that Jasper used on Garnet back to the beach and rushes us. With the Gems at risk, Steven and I push them back and engage her ourselves.

To Peridot's utter surprise as Steven grabs the Destabilizer bare handed, he doesn't explode or fall apart in the least bit and growls at her in defiance as the yellow lines roll over his body, giving him only a slight bit of discomfort. With him holding her, I move in to engage. She looks at me with a look of surprise as I slide right up to her. I give her a smirk before I bring my right hand back and launch a palm strike to her hand. My attack forces her to let go of the weapon and interrupts her control of the digits in her hand. Before she can react, I let loose a few rapid punches to her chest and stomach to stun her. As she slides back from my hits, I move behind her, taking her right arm with her and pulling it up into an arm lock. She lets out a gasp of pain from my move but before she can complain, I let her go and kick her away from me, right towards Amethyst who uses her whip and completely subdues Peridot by wrapping her with it several dozen times till she's almost completely covered except her head and feet. Once Amethyst tightens the bindings to make sure Peridot stays secure, I move over to her and start pick pocketing her. To my annoyance, I don't find my gun on her. "Where's my gun?" I ask her.

"Wouldn't you like to know." She sneers at me.

I let out a groan and leave her where she is. "We don't have time for this." I say and nod for Pearl to move over to the console.

"Don't touch that! You clods don't know what you're doing!" Peridot cries out but goes ignored by us.

"You got this, Pearl!" Amethyst encourages her fellow Gem.

"Okay, ship. Turn us around!" Pearl says and presses her hands to the console. At first I expect her to start pressing buttons but to my surprise her hands instead go 'into' the console and stay there. "Ooooooh!" She lets out a long gasp as her eyes start running lines of code on them.

"Pearl, you alright?" I ask her in concern.

"Yes, yes, I'm alright Marcus. It's just… overwhelming." She replies as she looks off into space.

'Wow.' I think as I look down at the console and how Pearl is accessing it. 'She's using the controls directly with her mind. This type of technological access can be a big help to me if I can replicate it.'

"Marcus!" I turn back to Steven's voice and my eyes widen. A couple more of those robonoids start moving in and immediately advance on Steven and Amethyst. Bolting away from Pearl's side, I take off to engage and destroy them. One of them has its arms extend two machete-like blades from its arms and swings one of them up then downwards towards Steven. Just before it connects, I grab the arm with both hands. Wrapping my arms and body around the appendage, I kick my leg out and send the rest of it flying away from us, tearing off the invisible connectors to limb as well. Without missing a beat, I twist around and throw the limb with the blade still extended like a javelin towards the other robonoid, who is trying to attack Amethyst with some beefy looking gauntlets, almost as big as Garnet's , but she keeps dodging its attacks but even then she still has trouble since she's also keeping Peridot restrained.

She doesn't have to dodge for long anymore as my impromptu spear skewers it through the chest and embeds it into a wall. It's stunned for a second but before it can try to tear out the weapon, I tackle it into the wall and bring my right elbow up, caving in its head into the wall and disabling it. After that small bout of fighting, I breathe a sigh of relief. "Everyone okay?" I call out to everyone.

"Yeah." Amethyst says.

"No." Peridot pipes up for some reason but we ignore her.

"I'm good." Steven replies.

"Pearl?"

"Yeeeessss?" She says but her word comes out more as a stuttered question since she's still working on the ships piloting.

"Alright, we're good here." Since everyone calls out their okay, let myself relax a bit.

"Hehe." However Peridot's chuckling puts me on edge.

"What? What's so funny?" I quickly ask and slam my foot onto the ground next to her head as an intimidation factor.

"Ha, what you thought those were the only combat robonoids I had?!" She yells out smugly, not at all intimidated by my action.

"What are you—?" Amethyst begins to say but I silence her as I hear something.

*Thump*Thump*Thump*Thump*

The distinct sound of multiple footsteps start to become louder and louder. Turning back to the only doorway, my eyes widen as several more combat robonoids start making their way in. Some pull out blades for their hands, others hands bulge up and become heavy gauntlets to fight, and a couple of them have their hands turn into two pronged tasers with a blue arc of lightning shooting between the prongs. "Damn." I curse under my breath and walk forward to them. "Stay back." I command my friends and get ready to fight. As I stand in front of them, I reach for my Gems to…

I stop midway to pulling out the swords and drop my hands. I give a long hard look to my left gem before closing my eyes and sighing. '… I'm sorry.' I open my eyes back up and stare at my enemies before slowly bringing my hands up to fight. "Let's go." I mutter to myself and charge forward.


Steven looks on in worry as his brother fights to keep the combat robonoids from swarming them but he can tell he's starting to falter. Especially when one of the robots slugs him in the stomach, making him curl forward for a moment in pain but quickly jumps back from another from slicing him.

"Marcus! Use your swords!" Amethyst calls out to him but groans at the blows he takes.

"No… I still got this." He stubbornly ignores her and re-rights himself before continuing his attack.

"What's wrong with him? Why isn't he using his weapons?" She questions out loud at Marcus's reluctance.

"Maybe he realizes how futile it is to continue- Gah!"

"Quiet you." Peridot starts to open her trap but Amethyst interrupts her by tightening her whip restraints.

'Why isn't he using his swords? What's stopping him from—' Stevens train of thought stops as he watches Marcus reach for his left gem he stops from doing anything with it, growls in anger and resumes fighting even more. Unconsciously, Steven reaches downwards and places a hand over his own Gem or more specifically, his moms gem.


"… Steven… she told me how many Gems my mom… how many she… shattered. So many Gems Steven."


"That's it." He breathes out as he remembers the conversation he had with him. How he learned some info about his mother he couldn't believe. How many Gems she… "That's why he can't use his weapons. That's why he WON'T use them!" Steven cries out at the realization.

Peridot and Amethyst look at the kid in confusion. "Whaaaa?" Peridot questions in confusion.

"What do you mean, Ste—"

"Pearl!" Steven runs over to the Gem piloting the ship. "Pearl! Pearl! Pearl!" He shakes her out of the technological trance she was in.

"Wha-? Steven!" She looks down at the kid in surprise as to why he's interrupting her in this delicate task. "Why are you interrupting me? I need to—"

"Give him your spear!"

"Huh?" She asks in confusion about what he means.

"Marcus! You have to give him your spear!" He says to her and points to where the fighting is. More of the robonoids have moved into the room and are focusing their attacks on the hybrid. Without a weapon, the blades and blunt weapons the robonoids are using against him are starting to weigh on him with the amount of dodging he has to do.

"I don't understand." She says in confusion as to why he's going bare-handed. Sure he's done the same before on some occasions but that's usually when his opponents were bare as well. "Why doesn't he—"

"He can't Pearl." Steven interrupts her with a sad tone. She looks down at Steven as he looks up at her with sad eyes. "Please… just trust me." He pleads with her.

She stares at the kid for a few more seconds but a cry from Marcus shifts her view.


"Aaaahhh!" I cry out as I'm thrown to the ground. "Damnit." I curse as I curl up a little from the soreness of my body before looking back at my opponents. I'm starting to get winded from the fighting. My attacks may destroy them pretty easily but these things are pretty durable so my hits take more and more out of me and with my reluctance to use my-… her weapons, I'm having trouble. "C'mon Marcus." I grunt and get back into a combat ready stance as a couple more file through the door. Several pieces of their own litter the ground around us and it looks like there is an infinite number of them considering just how many of them are still outside the door. 'C'mon Marcus. Figure out a way man. You have to!'

The lead combat robonoid raises its bladed hand above it and gets ready to strike me. "Marcus!" I look upwards upside down to Pearl and my eyes widen to what she's doing. As I look back to the robonoid it begins to bring down its weapons on me but by then, I'm already moving. Planting my hands firmly under me, I kick my legs downwards and launch myself back, the blade just barely nicking the back of my shirt as I fly backwards into the air.

As I'm in the air, I reach my hand out and nab the spear in mid-air before falling to the ground. As my feet hit the ground, I swing the spear one-handed away from me and slice the head right off the robonoid.

A tense silence falls over us as the head slides in half and falls to the ground, the piece falling and impacting the metal floor with an unceremonious clunk and the rest of the body crumpling away as well. The rest of my opponents look down at the body for a second before looking back at me and getting ready. Very slowly, I wipe a bit of blood on the corner of my mouth and smirking. "Let's do this." I mouth the words and start walking a couple steps before sprinting forward.

"Marcus!" At Steven's voice behind me, I jump in the air and twirl myself horizontally. Right below me, his shield comes sailing right towards the robonoids, shattering one their chests to oblivion. As the shield ricochets back, I grab the weapon in my other arm and spin downwards, slicing another robonoid donw the middle and breaking anothers head. As the two body's crumble to the floor, I place my right foot behind me and brace myself with Steven's shield in my right hand, and Pearls spear braced on the top right of the shield, reminiscent of the Spartans combat stance in their phalanx formation.

Five combat robonoids push forward to attack me but I smile at their formation. As soon as they get close enough, I thrust my spear forward and skewer three of them on one thrust right through the chests. The last two come up on either side of me but I quickly pull out the spear and using the shield to block on my left, I duck the rights attack and twirl my spear around me, slicing the chest in half on all on all of them that tried to attack me. As they fall, I move forward and start stabbing, slicing and bashing the ones that are on the sides of the room before moving in to the ones in the middle. I can't focus entirely on the middle otherwise the ones on the side of me would attack my flank. After attacking a few more times, Pearls spear holds strong and is just as ease to use as I remember when I attacked Frybo, and Steven's shield works out beautifully for me as it absorbs so much of the force of their attacks and doesn't look like it's going to break anytime soon. Thanks to my onslaught, the combat robonoids are forced back into the doorway and I can funnel them through it.

There are still a ton of them outside the room and easily outnumber me but thanks to the only door their numbers mean nothing. However I can't take the chance of them overpowering me in here and attack my friends. Amethyst needs to keep Peridot restrained, Steven's not good in combat yet and Pearl is piloting the ship to get us home. Getting back into the same stance I started with, I wait for them to come at me. A bladed combat robonoid rushes forward and stabs at my shield.

Wrong move.

I push my shield back against my opponent and force it back, where it stumbles back against another but they both die as my spear runs through both of them. With my spear pulled back, I rush forward and shield bash the broken pieces, making them rain down on the rest in the doorway. They are momentarily distracted by the action which allows me to do another thrust attack, stabbing one of them out the door. I quickly follow it out door and as soon as I'm out the door, "Haaa!" I bash my shield on the panel next to the door, breaking it to hell and the doors shut closed. 'Perfect.' I think and look at both hallways on either side of me. 'This is going to be interesting.' Both sides have one robonoid each coming after me; the left uses a powerful set of gauntlets to engage me and the right has blades. I bring my respective weapons up and block their attacks, my shield absorbs the blow of the gauntlet and my spear catches the bladed attack. Our weapons remain connected to each other for a couple seconds before I push them away from me with a grunt. They take a step back before going in for another attack on me. As they both attack at the same time, I jump up and angle myself horizontally, dodging their attacks with ease before I come back down to the ground turned around and attack them with the opposite weapons. I slam the edge of my shield against the face of the bladed robonoid and stab the head of the gauntlet robonoid. As I pull both weapons away, the head stays skewered on my spear. I look at it for a second before I see one of the combat robonoids moving closer. I slice downwards toward the robonoid and the force of it sends the head flying towards the active ones head, where both of them shatter and break.

From there it's a matter of watching both sides of me and switching from attacking and defending against both of them, sometimes at the same time. The narrowness of the hallways ensures that not very many of them can attack me at once and when they try to get close in mass I either do another 360 attack with the spear slice them dead or force them back, or I use an area-of-effect kinetic strike to push them back. The fighting doesn't last long though as all of a sudden the entire place shakes.

"Whoa!" I yell as I'm momentarily taken off my feet before the places lurches horribly, lurching me and all my enemies hard against the wall. I grunt as I'm slammed into the wall but thankfully, Steven's shield saves me some pain but the weapon shatters. Pearls spear falls from my hand too and disappears. With no weapons on me or in my hands, I quickly get back onto my feet and prepare to fight but all the robonoids I was fighting were destroyed by the sudden shift in the ships movement. Considering how much damage they sustained, it looks like I got lucky with Steven's shield or else I would have likely broken an arm. 'Holy… what the hell happened? What's going on?' I question in my head as I try to think of why the ship suddenly started moving. I figured some sort of dampening field is used on the interior of the ship to prevent the occupants from flailing around like I did so either something disabled it or just something changed the trajectory. With the door shut tight, I don't bother opening it so I go down the hallway and find a window. As I peer through it, I'm left in awe as we are headed straight for earth. I smile at the thought that Pearl simply changed our destination but as I see the ship starting to tip in an odd direction, plus the beginning of flames and the heat from the atmosphere start covering the exterior of the ship and plates start tearing off, I think things are starting to take a turn for the worse.

*CRACK*

Much much worse.

"Fuck!" I yell as one of the plates comes flying off the ships hull and impacts the window I was looking through, sending spider web cracks throughout the entire thing. The near instantaneous impact surprises the hell out of me and sends me falling onto my back. I breathe heavily as I came so close to getting sucked out into space and possibly burned up into the atmosphere. I still remember my regeneration ability but even I don't want to test that limit. I slowly stand up and steady myself from the low rumbling of the ship as I stare at the entirely cracked window in front of me. "Oh man… I need to get out of here." I mutter and take a step towards the bridge.

"Marcus!" I stop as my name is called out. I turn back to see Garnet running towards me.

"Garnet! Boy am I glad to see you!" I reply happily as I meet her halfway. As I get closer, I take note that she looks a little battered and bruised but nothing too serious. "What's going on?!" I ask her in hopes that she might have an idea.

"The ships going down. I destroyed its power core and everything is tearing apart." She informs me. To accentuate her point, a wall paneling near us snaps off and a couple cables of wires start flailing about, still running electricity through them.

"Son of a—" I grunt as the cords come dangerously close to electrocuting the both of us. Well, more so me considering she can conduct electricity in the first place. We step away from the hazard and I point to the bridges door. "C'mon, the others are in the bridges room but I had to jam the door prevent the robonoids from getting to them." I inform her as we make it to the front of the door. "You're gonna have to get creative to get in."

"Got it." She nods and cracks her knuckles.

"Good. Now let's—" I begin to get on one side of the door se we can pull them apart but I suddenly remember someone. "Oh god… Lapis!" I yell her name and back away. Garnet looks to me as I start walking in away. "She… she's still in her cell! I have to go get her!" I frantically say and take off.

"Wait!" Garnet grabs my arm before I can go.

"Damnit Garnet I know its suicidal but I just can't—" Before I can finish my rant, she interrupts me by grabbing my head with both her hands and kissing my forehead. For a split second I question why… but a vision flows through my mind. A corridor from where I am flows left right and forward for so long, with several places on the walls and ceilings cracking and tearing apart, revealing wires, pipes, power cables and girders in my vision. As it comes down to another hallway, I vaguely remember the familiar setting and my heart leaps as I see Lapis curled up just like how I left her. Everything returns to normal and I shake my head to clear myself. I look at Garnet with a confused expression.

She doesn't say anything at first, instead she gives me a comforting smile. "Go get her." She calmly says over the rapidly heightened sound of the ships destruction.

My confused expression turns to one of determination. After taking a step back from her, I give a firm nod before we both take off down opposite directions of the hallway.


Feeling confident in Marcus's ability, she moves over to the door and forms her gauntlets. Straightening out her hands, she thrusts them forward. "Ha!" She yells as she drives the tips of her fingers with immense force directly into where the two doors split door. Her hands go in easy and with a little bit of elbow grease, she pulls the doors open without much effort on her part.

"Garnet!" All three of her family members and friends inside the bridge turn to her in joy at seeing their fusion leader well and there in front of them. Unfortunately Peridot who was tied up was able to escape thanks to the rapidly destroying ship but that's beside the point now.

"This ship is going down!" Garnet tells them all as the ship rapidly descends to the planet below.

"What about Lapis?" Steven asks worriedly. He remembers how defeated his and Marcus's friend looked inside that cell and he does not want to see her get hurt inside that prison.

"Don't worry. Marcus's got her." She tells him as she moves over to them.

"Wha?" He asks in confusion.

As they all huddle together, Garnet gives the kid a smile. "He's got her."


I continue my down the hallway and twist through a few more, just as the vision guides me again. 'So this is what Steven saw. Freaky.' I comment in my head as I remember the few times Garnet gave Steven access to her future vision.

Unfortunately the vision isn't perfect as in the vision I see a hallway I can traverse without much difficulty. As I round my way to a very long hallway, I stop momentarily as I stare at the destruction and obstacles before me. Several girders, wires and pieces of debris block my way towards my goal. "God damnit. How the hell do I—" I begin to curse my luck at this point and I contemplate finding another route.

The vision cuts through me again and shows me the end. As the ships breaks around her, I watch as Lapis looks up for a second, then down in forlorn hopelessness.

I clench my fists and grit my teeth in anger, before my faces calms to one of firm determination. The ship jerks a little, almost throwing me off balance, but I remain standing and bounce on the balls of my feet.

"Alright, c'mon… let's do this. Sprint this… don't stop!" I yell at myself and run forward. My feet slam into the metal floors with loud thumps but they are nothing compared to the rumbling and tearing of the entire ship around me. I sprint my way through the ship as fast as I can without stopping, doing the best I can to make sure that I make it to her without any falter in my steps whatsoever. I slide under low-hanging exposed wires, under girder pieces that fell, vaulting over broken pieces of the walls that collapsed in front of me. As I come upon an almost entirely blocked point in the hallway, everything around me slows but my mind goes into overdrive in finding a way forward without stopping. It doesn't take long as I spot an exposed bar horizontal just above where a small gap is above the collapse. Everything goes back to normal as I move even faster to implement my plan.

As I get closer and closer to the point, explosions go off behind me and a quick glance shows a cloud of fiery green following me. 'C'mon… c'mon!' I yell in my mind as the flames start to get closer and closer to me but my objective comes within reach. At the last second before I hit the wall, I jump up and grab the pipe on the ceiling. Using my momentum, I pull my feet up and throw myself towards exposed hole in the wall. It's a tight fit and the back of my shirt rips but I sail through the hole with ease and roll before continuing on. The collapsed wall behind me explodes outward from the explosion that followed me but the explosion dies down from being snuffed so suddenly. The way is clear back and the green fire dissipates.

The vision returns as I make my way forward and shows me a couple more turns before I make it to her.

"Hold on Lapis… I'm coming." I mutter to myself and put more gas into my sprint.


Lapis looks down in sadness as the ship around her begins to fall apart. Seeing how powerful and well equipped Homeworld was when she arrived, she knew any hope of retaliation was going to fail.

But now as she feels the ship around her start to break as it reenters earth's atmosphere, she knows how useless her words have been on her friends. By telling them to not fight back, she hoped they would follow through with what she said and hopefully Homeworld would have gone easy on those she cared about. The Crystal Gems she could care less about but Steven and… Marcus… were the ones she wanted to warn.

Since the ship is falling and it was the two of them she saw out of their cells, it's obvious who it was that caused the explosion and destruction of the ship.

"Haaaa." She lets out a sigh and curls her legs up as she waits for the impending crash and amount of pain she'll feel when her cells breaks apart.

"LAPIS!"

She jerks up at her name being called. She looks out her cell but a giant railed support beam that fell in front of her cells barrier blocks most of her view at first.

"Lapis!" The voice yells again and she stands up in confusion.

'Who is calling for me?' She questions in confusion in her head. Before she can speculate anymore, someone slides out from under a collapsed beam that blocked the door away from her cell and stands up. Her eyes widen as she sees the person that was calling her name and here while the ship is breaking. "Marcus?" She calls his name in confusion as to why he's here.

He jerks his head in the direction he heard his name being called and looks relieved to see his friend safe. "Lapis! Oh thank god." He praises as he runs up to the front of her cell and looks at the blockage. "I'm here to get you out of here! Let me just…" He grabs the bottom of the beam and gets ready to move it.

"Stop!" Marcus stops in surprise at Lapis's demand. "Just… stop! Okay!"

"Wha- Lapis I—" He begins to say but she stops him.

"No listen! I told you if you didn't fight then they would go easy on us. But now look at us!" She yells as she waves her arms around them. Another rumble goes through the ship and they stumble before going back to normal. "Is this any better?!" She angrily questions him. There is some truth to what she says. If he and the Crystal Gems had just submitted to Homeworld then chances they would be alright and no drama could have transpired. However since they rebelled, she was thrown into a cell, Garnet was nearly destroyed, Steven is sporting a black eye and Marcus almost… The person in question looks down in sadness as he remembers what he became and how he almost attacked one of his friends. "Just… just leave me. Okay? Just go." She demands of him and turns around, not wanting to look back at the person that caused her so much grief in such a short time.

"I'm sorry."

"…What?" Lapis asks in confusion at his words.

"I am sorry for what I did. And I'm sorry that we got you into this mess… but if you think I'm going leave you here to die then you must be out of your mind!" Marcus slowly explains before his words and voice start getting louder and louder.

"What are you—?!"

"Nh!" He interrupts her by kicking the part of the beam that is still connected to the wall, the metal horribly warped. The metal bends some more but doesn't break. He kicks it a few more time in anger until it nearly splinters off. Grabbing the broken piece, he lifts the giant piece of metal in anger and pulls it away. "Nnnnngggggrrraaa!" He yells in anger and strains to pick the heavy piece up at first but he manages to. In a roar of anger, he rips the weakened piece of the metal off the wall and tosses the beam out of the way. He breathes heavily for a second before walking over to the cell door, stopping just from entering it. "I care about you Lapis. More than you think. I don't know what it was that I became but that thing doesn't speak for me!" He yells as he points to himself in anger. The thing he became was an enigma to both himself and Lapis. One thing he does know for sure is that he wasn't in the right mind whatsoever when he changed so I doesn't speak for his sane mind. He moves forward and creates a hole in the barrier. Lapis looks on in surprise as he keeps his firm expression as the yellow lines roll over his body again. He doesn't pay the dull pain any attention as he speaks, "Hate me forever if you want," He extends a hand towards the prisoner. "But I'll be DAMNED if I let you die here!" He yells over the increasing screeching of the ships destruction.

'Marcus…' Her thought voice her awe at her friend. The person who really is her friend. The thing that he became was the stuff of nightmares and frightened her to her very core. But now here he is, willing to forgo his own safety and well-being to make sure that she is safe.

Very carefully and slowly, she extends her hand to him.

"C'mon!" He reaches forward and snags her hand before pulling her out the cell. Once she's out, he looks down the hallway before turning back to her. "We have to get to Steven! His shield can protect us from the crash." He informs her quickly and pulls her down the hallway.

"Whoa!" She yelps as his sudden movement almost throws her off her feet, making her stumble but keeps up with him.

They don't go far however as another rumble from the ship nearly makes them fall to the ground. Lapis however almost touches a set of low hanging exposed wires but Marcus quickly pulls her away from them before they touch her. "Damn," He growls as he sees the hazards around them. "We're too slow. The ship'll be destroyed before we can get to safety." He deduces as he looks around before looking to his companion.

"Well what are we supposed to- Aap!" She yelps out loud as suddenly she becomes weightless.

"Just hang on tight!" Marcus orders her as he sweeps her off her feet bridle style. Instinctively she wraps her arms around his neck and hugs him tightly. As he starts making his way down the hallway much faster this time, he doesn't notice the blush forming on her face.


I have to admit it was awkward the second I picked Lapis up into my arms but I think I can forgo the awkwardness in favor of us getting to safety. She hugs her arms tightly around my neck so she doesn't fall off, not that she could considering my left arm is under her legs and my right is holding the small of her back. Still while it feels weird for the both of us, I can move just as well as I did before and I can avoid the more hazardous pieces of the ships destruction. More wires hang torn off from the walls, broken pipes jut out of walls, supports hang precariously, and more than a few windows are cracked from the pressure or debris.

All in all, it's not looking good the further we go into the ship.

As we come upon another broken section off a hallway, I momentarily pause. "Alright, we just keep going and—"

*Boom*

My words are cut off as the somewhat safe looking hallway suddenly erupts in a small explosion that forces me back. I quickly turn around so my back is the fire and Lapis isn't in the way. "Argh!" I grunt as the flames barely hit me from behind but nothing too bad.

"Marcus! Are you okay?" Lapis asks me worriedly as she gets down. I take a second to steady myself from the explosion and the flames.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good." I reassure her as the ships starts tipping and everything feels like it's starting to warp. "Oh man. This isn't good." I say in unease as our situation becomes even direr.

"What do we do?" She quickly asks me in worry as the way we were going continues to go up in flames.

"I… I…" I try to think of something but the screeching metal becomes louder, almost deafening. I grunt as sparks rain down on us. "I don't know! I—"

I start to lose hope. Everything is literally being torn apart around us and I can't find a clear way for us to move forward. I hug Lapis close to me as everything goes to hell around us.

*Rrrrrrrrrrrr*

A low warping and bending of metal sound emanates around us, like a submarine going too far underwater and the metal starts bending. As the walls around us start cracking, my attention is focused on a lone pipe visible through a broken piece of the wall directly behind Lapis. The pipe is intact and runs through the rest of the ship but the bending gets worse on the lone piece of metal. I can visibly see it arching and trying to take the strain rest of the ship is having on the poor metal but it can't.

Everything slows down as the hollow pipe of metal snaps off from the wall and is sent hurtling right towards us.

To my horror, right towards Lapis's back.

As the jagged piece of metal cartwheels through the air in slow motion, I do without thinking, twist us around.

The pain that follows is excruciating.

My whole body visibly jerks as the pipe lodges itself squarely in my back with a grotesque sound. My hands grip Lapis's shoulders painfully so but they let up as my legs start give out.

"Marcus? Marcus what's wrong?" Lapis begins to frantically ask me what's wrong but everything starts to go quiet. 'Hurts… so much… pain. I can't… stop…' My thoughts become incoherent as I fall to my knees. The look of horror on her face is almost as painful to watch as the one shooting through my body. I feel a small dribble of blood go down the right corner of my lip as I stare aimlessly at the ceiling. "Marcus? No no nonono noooo! Please don't die on me! Please you can't! You can't now!" She starts screaming as my grip on her starts to slacken and my vision darkens.

The ships no better off as everything tears apart completely.

She hugs me as the ships explodes and crashes.

"MAAARRCCUUUUUUSSS!"

Her cry for me is the last and only echoes I hear as everything blows up around us.

Don't worry folks, the next part will be up either tomorrow or the next day after.

No long winded notes here because this won't be around early enough for the majority of you all to see. The final part will have what I have on my mind. Still, I'll say what I always say.

Have a great day and have fun reading.