Chapter 17
Keeping It Together
Jet yawned as he watched the others fold Steven's assortment of shirts. It was a few days since his return and he decided to stay with the gems for as long as he was able to. He was wearing his new set up that included his black shirt with a red star in the middle and his baggy pants with stars on them. They were in the living room with a giant pile to fold.
"We need to track down Peridot." Garnet said, folding a shirt. " We found her pod, we know she's out there, somewhere. She came to Earth with a job to do and odds are, she still gonna try do it. That's why I've gathered you here."
"Dumb mistake if you ask me." Jet said, as he stared to stretch out on the couch. He had his eyes closed. He felt relaxed and it's been a long time since he was able to slack off a little.
"I thought you gathered us here so you can help fold all this laundry?" Steven said as he folded a shirt and casting it to the side.
"Well, that too." Garnet said, looking at Amethyst. "It'll go faster if we all pitched in." Amethyst was uninterested at what was going on at the moment, as she had a magazine in her hand. She felt a presence of someone or something staring at her and she looked to see that Garnet was glaring at her. Amethyst rolled her eyes and started to help fold the shirts.
"Humans should just stop wearing clothes." Amethyst said as she started to do her share of folding. "It would be a lot funnier." Jet smirked at that. He knew that if he walked around the temple naked, Amethyst probably wouldn't be able to control herself around him.
"As human, clothing is a must." Steven said, looking at the pile. "This is a lot though. I bet this'll go by even faster if Ruby and Sapphire were here."
"I'm sure they'd be glad to see you Steven." Garnet said, smiling a bit. "But I am not unfusing for laundry."
"Aww." Steven said. "It was worth a shot."
"Garnet." Pearl said, getting her attention. "You don't think Peridot would come looking for us, do you?"
"We weren't her priority." Garnet said. "She was sent to do something in The Kindergarten."
"Do you think she still going to try to reactivate it?" Pearl asked. Garnet nodded her head.
"If she gets it up and running, the injectors will turn back on." Garnet said.
"Injectors?" Steven asked. "What are those?"
"You already seen them." Pearl said, showing everyone the image of it through her gem. It looked like a giant modified drill. Jet opened one eye to look at the image before him. "Well, you've seen them disable. If Peridot reactivates them, they'll pick up right where left off, planting gems in the Earth's crust. From there, they'll suck the life right out of the ground. We can't let Peridot restart gem production here. If we do, the entire planet will become..."
"Screwed." Garnet said. The others looked at her in surprised. Garnet was never the one to use words like that so it was a little bit of a shock to them.
"Garnet!" Amethyst said, laughing a bit. "That mouth!" Steven looked a bit worried from hearing all this and Garnet noticed.
"Don't worry." Garnet said. "We'll stop her." Steven smiled and Garnet got up.
"C'mon, Crystal Gems." She said, walking towards the warp pad. Amethyst and Pearl got up and followed. Jet stretched his arms and walked over to the warp pad as well. Steven continued to fold his shirts though.
"Steven." Garnet said.
"C'mon! That means you too!" Amethyst said, waving him over. Steven smiled and ran over to the warp pad. Garnet placed her head on his head.
"You're part of the team, you know." Garnet said.
"Garnet, are you sure we should bring Steven?" Pearl asked. "This might be dangerous."
"Peridot got nothing we can't handle." Garnet said and as soon as she said that, they took off. Jet opened his eyes as they were in the streaming process. He had a feeling since he was stronger, this shouldn't be a problem for him. He noticed that it wasn't as much as a big deal as he thought and felt stupid that he didn't like the feeling. Before he could ponder on it more, the stream stopped and the group arrived in the deserted out-lands that was known as The Kindergarten. Pearl activated her gem which provided a light for them as they got off the pad to investigate.
"Well..." Pearl said as they started to look around. "Nothing looks activated. In fact, it doesn't look like anything budged since the last time we were here."
"You're right." Garnet said, looking around herself. "But just because Peridot hasn't been here yet doesn't mean she won't come." Jet scoffed at this and looked around himself with Amethyst close by.
"Let's do a whole search of the perimeter." Garnet stated. "That way, we can monitor future entry."
"Sounds good to me!" Steven said as he started to walk off. Jet and Amethyst looked at each other than at Steven as he started to search for anything suspicious on his own. Jet summoned his weapon, feeling a little unease.
"There's something in the air that doesn't feel right." He said, looking in Steven's direction.
"What do you sense?" Garnet asked, walking up behind him with Pearl close by.
"Steven might have found Peridot already." Jet said, earning a gasp from the gems. "But there's too much interference to be sure."
"Let's go check." Garnet said. "Which way did Steven go?"
"Follow me." Jet said, as he started to run in the location that Steven went. It didn't take them long to find Steven as he was standing and appearing to be talking to Peridot.
"Peridot!" Garnet yelled as the group closed in on her. Peridot gasped and immediately took off with Steven pursuing her. She ran until she found herself trapped between the crystal gems and a wall of The Kindergarten.
"There's nowhere to go." Garnet said, as they were mere feet away from her. Peridot took off towards the wall and started to scale it vertically. The others just missed her as they watched her run up the wall.
"That's impressive." Jet said, watching her run effortlessly up the wall.
"Hey! I can't do that!" Steven said.
"Neither can she!" Pearl said throwing her spear up. It went over Peridot and Peridot looked back at her while still running.
"Ha! Missed!" She said.
"No, she didn't." Jet said, as he folded his arms. Peridot raised an eyebrow until she noticed the sound of rumbling. Stuck on the wall's surface were many drill injectors and Pearl's spear managed to knock one loose. It was falling, heading right towards Peridot's path. Peridot gasped and started to run the opposite way but it was fruitless. The injector hit her, making her stumble down. She tried to get up to make a run for it but the injector landed on her soon after. The gems covered their eyes as a cloud of smoke covered the area from the impact.
"Do you think she's hurt?" Steven said, looking over at the rubble. Jet looked over and notice a rock shifting slightly.
"Nope." He said as Peridot emerged. She took off once more but Amethyst was hot on her tail, her whip already drawn. She managed to wrap her whip around Peridot, momentarily stopping her. Peridot smirked and pressed a button on her suit that sent an electric charged through Amethyst's whip.
"Whoa! Hot whip!" Amethyst said, letting the whip got before she could get zapped. Amethyst growled and Peridot took off once more.
"You crystal clods!" She said, looking back at them. "Go ahead and wreck this place! I've already got what I needed!" Pearl and Amethyst nodded and took off after her. They were closing the gap until Peridot twirled her fingers to make a helicopter for herself. She started to laugh menacingly, as Amethyst and Pearl continued to pursue her.
"I'm gonna bop her good!" Amethyst shouted
"I'll help!" Pearl said. The two vanished from sight leaving Garnet, Steven and Jet behind.
"Garnet?" Jet said, looking at her.
"I know." Garnet said. "If Peridot mission was to reactivate The Kindergarten, the injectors would be on. Look...they're not." Everyone took a moment to look around. She was right, there wasn't anything moving at all. "Let's see what she was actually doing." Garnet walked over to an injector and lifted it up. It was the hole that lead them to their second encounter with Peridot.
"It's interesting that this still would be here." Jet said, looking down into the hole.
"Wow." Steven said, looking into the hole as well. "You're brains and brawns, the whole package."
"Thank you." Garnet said, casting the injector to the side.
"It is cause you're a fusion?" Steven asked.
"I have to keep some of my secrets." Garnet said.
"Aww." Steven said, as he started to slid down the hole. Jet and Garnet followed soon after. The path was the same as last time, dark and surrounded by green-like crystals on the walls. Steven started to ask Garnet a series of questions, as they made their way down the path.
"Is the strong part of you Ruby and the wise part of you Sapphire?" Steven asked.
"It's all of both." Garnet said. "When 2 gems combine, it creates something greater than their parts. That's why I'm so great." Garnet finished, smiling at Steven. Jet remained silent, he had no input on fusion because he wouldn't consider even doing it. He liked relying on his own power, but what Garnet was saying was making sense to him though. The crew stopped at the platform that was shaped like an auditorium and made their way up onto the stage.
"This place is even creepier than the last time we were here." Steven said, looking around.
"Yes." Garnet said, looking around herself. "There's something going on."
"The power's not on..." Jet said, looking at the destroyed panel. "What was Peridot even doing here?" Garnet looked up to see what looked like destroyed pillars.
"It looked like she pulled those out of the wall." She said, causing Jet to look up as well. "Something strange is..." Jet and Garnet heard a faint sound in the distance and Garnet went to go check. Steven followed her, wondering what was going on. The noise got louder and something soft landed on Jet's shoulder. He looked and noticed that it was what appeared to be a hand and foot sewed together.
"What the...?" Jet said, flinging it off him. Garnet and Steven looked up to see that there were more falling from the pillars in the ceiling.
"What are they?" Steven asked right before one clung to his face. Garnet grabbed the misshaped figure from Steven's face and she instantly poofed it. The figure poofed out 2 gem shards that looked like it was forced together. Garnet noticed and throw the shard to the side.
"Are all these gems... stuck together?" Steven asked. Garnet didn't answer him. In fact, she looked horrified. "Garnet?" There was another loud noise and Jet drew his weapon. He could feel the distress that was coming from Garnet and it was starting to worry him.
Jet went to see what the noise was and it was a figure that was forming in front of him. It had multiple limbs and it slowly made its way towards him, making him grip his sword even tighter. Garnet started to back away from the creature, she seemed to be in a state of turmoil.
"Garnet?" Steven said, noticing her condition. "Garnet? Talk to me, Garnet!"
"She can't hear you, right now." Jet said, as the creature lunged towards him. Jet blocked its attack and was able to push it back. "I'm guessing that these gems have her in a disarray, seeing them stuck as they are." Steven was trying to snap Garnet out of her state of shock, but to no avail. Jet looked back and the creature was able to slip pass him and latch itself to Garnet.
'Shit.' Jet thought making his way to the creature until he heard Garnet begin to speak.
"These were crystal gems, shattered into pieces." Garnet spoke as the creature knocked her visor of her face. Her 3 eyes beaming with sadness. "They were buried together... forced together. They were forced to fuse. This is wrong... I-I'm sorry..." She was engulfed in light, as if she was starting to unfuse.
"Garnet!" Steven said, kicking one of the small creatures away. "You're coming undone!"
"Garnet!" Jet yelled. "Snap out of it! This isn't like you!" As soon as he said that, Garnet started to pull herself together. She was still engulfed in light, but she had more control of herself. She broke free of the creature's grip, causing it to slid back a little. She then went over to it and forced it apart, poofing it in an instant. The massive shard of the gems fell to the ground and Garnet sealed it in a bubble. Jet let out a sigh and dispersed his weapon.
"We did it!" Steven cheered. Garnet held up the bubble and remained silent.
"Garnet." Jet said, noticing that she was still in distress.
"So, this is what home world thinks of fuse." She said, her tone changing a little. "We couldn't have known they would do this." Her two sides seemed to be arguing with one another. "This is where they've been, all the one's we couldn't find. They've been here the whole time." Her eyes shifting colors from red to blue. "Rose couldn't have known." Her eyes shifting back to red. "This is punishment for the rebellion!" They shifted back. "It's not our fault!"
"Garnet!" Steven said, snapping her out of it. She teleported the bubble away and turned around to look at Steven.
"Steven..." She said, in her normal tone. She placed her visor back on her face.
"Yo! We're back!" They are heard a voice say. It was no other than Amethyst and Pearl walking to where they were.
"Garnet, we've lost Peridot." Pearl reported, walking up to her with Amethyst behind. "Her finger were too fast for us." Amethyst felt something crawled up her said and Pearl noticed. It was a creature that they'd discovered earlier.
"Umm... what are these things?" Pearl asked, removing it from Amethyst to get a better look.
"Put them down!" Garnet shouted, making Pearl instantly drop it. "We need to poof and bubble all of them. We can't let any escape." And with that, she instantly poofed the creature that Pearl had dropped.
Later on that day, Jet decided to accompany Steven to do his laundry, because Steven wanted someone to talk to. Jet didn't mind because he really didn't have any other thing to do. The two took a warp to get to the washing machine and dryer, which was located by the end of the cliff. Upon arriving, the duo noticed that Garnet was there, staring off into space.
"Hey, Garnet!" Steven said, walking up to her.
"Hey." She said, her arms folded. Steven started to put his laundry into the washing machine and Jet looked around.
"I've always wonder... is there even plumbing up here? How do they washer and dryers work if they don't?" Jet asked to no one.
"Magic." Garnet said, casting her hand in a playful manner. She then turned her head to the side.
"All you alright?" Steven asked, noticing her change.
"I wish neither of you had seen that." She said.
"It's okay." Steven said.
"It's not okay." Garnet said, looking at him.
"Why?" Steven asked.
"What home world did... taking the shattered parts of fallen gems and combining them..." She started, casting her head to the side once more. "Those gems weren't asked permission. Fusion is a choice; those gems weren't given a choice. It isn't right, it isn't fusion."
"I never knew you felt so strongly about fusion." Jet said. " But then again, there's a lot I don't know about you guys." Garnet remained silent, her teeth gritted in anger over the things she said.
"What's it like...being a fusion?" Jet asked, snapping her out of it. "When you fuse, do you forget who you use to be?"
"You forget you were ever alone." Garnet said. "You don't feel like two people, you feel like one being and your old names might as well be names of your left arm and your right."
"Wow." Jet said, grinning. "I might have to give it a try since you've said it like that..."
"That's why she's so great!" Steven said, causing Garnet to smile.
"Yep." Garnet said, as Steven's clothes started in the machine
