Wow, a lot has happened since I've posted a chapter here. Losing my laptop did not help also losing my will to write another chapter for this story did not either. With the movie releasing two months ago, Steven Universe Future on the way and playing the games sparked my interest back into the series. Since my laptop is fried, I'll have to focus on writing new chapters for my tablet. Don't worry about waiting another year for another chapter. Chapter 27 is about 45% finished already. Anyway, enjoy the chapter folks!- Insaneguy2010
Chapter 26
Message Received
Lion had return Jet and the others back to Earth, safe and sound. Jet yawned as it was late out. He started to think that there were only a few hours until the sun rise. He didn't know how long that they were on the moon. Jet sat down on the grass near the barn, the need for sleep was starting to get to him. Even Steven had more energy than he did at the moment. Speaking of Steven, he was in the barn talking to Peridot about something that Jet didn't care about. Jet lay back on the grass and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep in the process.
Inside Jet's Dream
Jet looked around him; he was standing on an unfamiliar beach. He scratched his head, wondering how he got to such a bizarre place.
"I must be dreaming." Jet said, as he continued to look around. He continued to look around until the sound of rumbling caught his attention.
"The hell?" Jet said as he looked towards the ocean. A massive creature was emerging from it and Jet drew his weapon from his gem, preparing himself for the possibility of a threat. When the creature emerged, Jet eyes widen a little. That creature was no other than Malachite, her 4 eyes glaring down at him.
"You!" She said, as she started to make a slow approach towards him. Jet took a couple of steps back; he didn't want to fight her because her voice reminded him of Lapis. Jet started to sweat and was going to defend himself, if need, until he heard the sound of someone chuckling. Jet turned his head and Topaz was right beside him. Jet jumped a few feet away from Topaz, slightly startled by his sudden appearance. Topaz started to laugh at that.
"Well, aren't you cautious?" Topaz said, still chuckling a bit. Jet remained silent, his eyes starting to glow a fierce red and Topaz folded his arms. "Those eyes, Jett Stone. Those damn eyes..." Topaz drew his weapon and Jet found himself in a predicament. Malachite was still making her way towards him and Topaz was too.
"What the hell did I do to deserve this?" Jet asked himself. Topaz was instantly in his face, catching him off guard.
"That's simple." Topaz said; bring his weapon down on Jet's Head. "You exist."
Jet woke up with a start, his breathing rugged. He looked around and noticed that Steven was talking to the gems. He looked upset about something and Jet stretched his limbs, some of them cracking in the process. He got up and walked over to where the gems were. He wanted to know what was going on, now that he felt a little refreshed. The dream was still bothering him a little but he decided to push it in the back of his mind. Steven pulled out the white crystal that Peridot had back on the moon, this made the crystal gems gasp.
"What's going on?" Jet asked, still a bit tired.
"She took a direct line from the diamonds... from the moon base..." Pearl said, still a bit shocked at what Steven had in his hands. She took the crystal from Steven, marveling over it a bit. "What was she thinking?"
"Man..." Amethyst said, folding her arms. "After everything we've gone through, she's still out to get us? I'm taking back all my cool nicknames I had for her. So long, Perry and Pedda. Hello...umm...mmm... Gah! I'm too mad! I'll think of something later!" It was quite for a moment until the sound of a horn could be heard from the barn. Jet raised an eyebrow, still wondering what happened.
"So..." He started, shifting his attention towards Steven. "What did you do to her? What lead to this?"
"Well..." Steven started. "It all started like this..."
Steven's Flashback
Steven walked in the barn where Peridot was. He had seen what she did and her actions back on the moon base were making him suspicious. As soon as he entered the barn, she noticed and hid the diamond she took behind her back.
"Oh... it's you Steven." Peridot said, making Steven scowl a bit at her.
"Peridot." Steven said. "I need to talk to you."
"Umm..." Peridot said, her eyes shifting away from him a bit. "Yeah, sure." Steven pointed to the empty truck that was abandon in the barn. He went to the driver's side and opened the door to let himself in. Once he was in, he waited for her to open the passenger's side. She did and sat down next to him, wondering what he wanted to talk about.
"Why are we in this broken-down vehicle?" She asked, looking around.
"I wanted to ask you..." Steven stopped for a moment to notice that she still had one of her hands behind her back. He then focused his attention back on her. "About the diamonds."
"Oh?" Peridot said, her voice showed a little more excitement from this. "Well, I don't know what the others have told you, but there's a reason they're in charge."
"Why's that?" Steven said, still scowling a bit at her.
"They're objectively better than us." Peridot said, smiling a bit. " Every gem have their strengths and weakness, but not them. They're absolutely, totally, completely flawless beings! Especially, my diamond...Yellow Diamond. The most perfect, reasonable decider to ever exist in the universe!"
"You're really loyal to her, aren't you?" Steven asked, his scowl disappearing a little.
"How could I not be?" Peridot asked. "We might have our little truce, but I'll never forsake the gem that I was made for."
"That's good because she's right behind you." Steven said, pointing behind her.
"What?" Peridot said, turning her whole body around. As soon as she did that, Steven snatched the white crystal from her back, got out of the truck, and activated the child lock on the door. He did it all in one fluid motion, as he slammed the truck door behind him. Peridot started to panic as she was now trapped.
"Save your strength." Steven said, glaring at her. "You're up against one of the Earth's greatest trapping technologies, the child safety lock!"
"Nooo!" Peridot shouted. "How could you do this to me, the great and lovable Peridot? I thought that we were finally becoming friends, like you wanted?"
"I saw you sneak this off the moon base, while no one else was looking." Steven said, point to the crystal in his hand. "What is it? Tell me!" Peridot scowled at him and her eyes shifted away from him.
"It's nothing special and definitely not important at all." She calmly said.
"Really?" Steven said, holding it above his head. "Then why don't I just smash it!"
"No, no, no, no! Wait!" Peridot said, her face pressed against the window of the driver's side. "Alright, look... I have a plan. Allow me to explain, it's a... communicator..." Steven lowered the crystal down, preparing to hear what else she had to say.
"Meant for the express purpose of contacting the diamonds back on home world." She continued.
"You're still trying to contact home world?" Steven asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, of course!" She said. "I figured it out! You simply clods keep trying to protect the Earth, but you can't do anything right. I let myself get carried away too by laughing, singing, building our little machine but don't you see, none of that matters. All that matters is that I'm of use to Yellow Diamond! This planet can be of use to Yellow Diamond! I must contact her, to reveal what I have discovered." Steven looked a bit horrified at what Peridot just told him.
"But the diamonds are bad!" Steven said. "They don't care about the Earth! They wanted to hollow it out and now they want to blow it up with the cluster!"
"Yes, Yes! That's the point!" Peridot shouted, smirking at him.
"Grrr! Why do I keep sticking my neck out for you?" Steven said in frustration. Peridot raised an eyebrow at this. "You're never gonna be on our side! Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl! Jet!" Steven ran out of the barn screaming for them.
"Steven, no! Don't get them!" Peridot pleaded. "Steven! Release me!"
End Flashback
"And that's when I came out here..." Steven said. The sound of a horn could be heard once more and this time, it was repeatedly. "I see she knows what a horn is now!" Garnet walked over to Steven and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You offered her a lot of your trust." She said, causing Steven to look up.
"I did and it blew up in my face!" He said, folding his arms. "You guys have been protecting the Earth for thousands of years. She could've destroyed all that! A whole Earth! Why did I think that I could change her mind?"
"Ugh, I know right?" Amethyst said, placing a hand on her hip. "But I guess you can't like, get into other people's head and change what they think." She paused and her eyes widen a bit. "Maybe, we can. Yeah! If we just shrink down really little th-"
"No, no, no." Steven said, interrupting her. "I don't want to tell her what to do, she should just know. Shouldn't she?" The others give one another uncertain looks.
"It's good that you believe in everyone, Steven." Garnet said, as she pushed her visor up to her face. "Like your mother, you seem to have a like more patience than the rest of us. But the truth is, not everyone deserves that patience." Steven looked up at her, he was quiet for the moment.
"Look on the bright side." Pearl said. "At least, you got this thing away from her before she did any real damage."
"Yeah." Steven said, smiling a bit. It was quiet until a sound of an explosion went off. The group looked towards the barn to noticed that it was covered in smoke. In the distant, a certain someone was laughing in the mist of it.
"Free! Free!" The voice said. When the smoke cleared, it was no other than Peridot in her giant robot (see chapter 23 for a description). She was waving her robotic arms in the air and still laughing like a manic. The group looked over at her in shock.
"How did she escape?" Steven asked. A truck door went flying their way and Jet started to smile. Though he didn't have much to say, he was itching for a fight and it appears Peridot was going to provide him with one. Jet drew his weapon and slashed at the truck door just mere moments before it reached them. Jet sighed and retracted his weapon back into his gem.
"Fools." She said, pointing a robotic claw at them. "Your invisible rotary shield was no match for me once I applied logic!" The crystal gems started to run towards her, but Peridot grabbed the truck from the barn and threw it at them. Garnet grabbed Steven and jumped out of the way with the others moving out of the way as well. Pearl and Amethyst were holding on to the crystal and Peridot made her way quickly over and took it from them.
"See?" She said. "None of you know what you're doing!" As quickly as she made it to them, she left just as quickly as well.
"Ooook..." Amethyst said, her face a bit flustered at what Peridot said. "I've been waiting for this!" She started to glow and then she morphed into a helicopter.
"Get in!" She said, as she watched Peridot run off into the distance. Garnet and Pearl looked at each and nodded, both getting into the morphed helicopter.
"Where's Steven?" Pearl asked.
"Stupid Peridot, stupid giant robot!" Steven said, pouting to himself. "Oh, why did I have to encourage her-?" He was stopped as Garnet morphed her hand and pulled him inside. Jet stood by them as he was planning on grabbing the edge of the helicopter when Amethyst took off.
"There's no time for feeling horrible about yourself." Garnet said. "We have to catch Peridot before she contacts Yellow Diamond!"
"That's right." Pearl said, placing a hand on Steven's head. "You can feel horrible all you want back at the temple!" Steven raised an eyebrow at her upon hearing that. Amethyst started to take off and Jet held on to the landing gear of the helicopter.
The gang could see Peridot running in the distance, trying to mess with the white crystal with her robotic arms. From what Jet was seeing, she was failing miserable at it. Amethyst pulled closer to Peridot, who was more focused on the crystal than anything else.
"What's up, Perry-snot?" Amethyst said.
"Good one, Amethyst." Steven said, glaring down at Peridot. The crystal gems equipped their weapons from inside the helicopter, causing Peridot to look up at them and gasp. Jet could tell that she was extremely nervous as if she was racing against time. Garnet aimed her gauntlets at her and shot them off like to mini rockets. It hit Peridot, causing her robot to stumble and fall over a power line. She dropped the crystal upon landing, it landing a few feet away from her.
She groaned and shook her head. She looked in front of her and notices that the crystal was in just a few feet away. Before she could even make a reach for it, a spear knocked it a few more feet away. Peridot looked up to see the crystal gems making a beeline straight towards her.
"Dog pile!" Amethyst screamed, un-morphing from her helicopter form. Peridot gasped as the crystal gems landed on the robot and started to beat on it. Jet landed a few feet behind them, in case Peridot planned on making a run for it.
Peridot watched for a moment as the crystal gems continued to beat on her robot. She scowled at them but then noticed an opening for herself. Her robot arm had a hole in it, small enough for her to slip through undetected... so, she thought. Steven seen her slip through them and make a dash towards the crystal. The others hadn't noticed (besides Jet, which he was slowly making his way towards her) and continued to beat on the machine.
"You're not getting away with it!" Steven said, racing towards Peridot. He managed to catch up, making Jet stop his movement towards her. Peridot grabbed the crystal and felt something grabbing her in return. Steven was squeezing her, not wanting her to get away.
"I trusted you!" Steven said, trying to maintain a struggling Peridot. "I spent all that time bonding and hoping and caring about you!" Peridot's struggling caused both off them to get the ground.
"You don't understand either!" Peridot grunted. "This is your whole problem...your emotions rule out reason! I... will do what has to be... done!" Peridot managed to free herself from Steven's grip and she twisted the top of the crystal and when she did, the top half started to grow yellow. Steven backed away and Peridot started to laugh menacingly.
"She'll sort this out." Peridot said, as the crystal started to slowly hover from her hands. Garnet grabbed Steven and hid behind the wreckage of Peridot's robot. Jet senses warned him to take cover as well so he joined the others and hid behind the wreckage as well. As soon as Jet did that, a giant diamond shaped image showed up. The image showed someone who looked like Pearl but had a different hairstyle and had a different appearance. This Pearl seemed classier than the Pearl that was near him.
"This is the Yellow Diamond control room." She said, glaring down at Peridot.
"Is that another Pearl?" Amethyst asked, peaking enough not to be seen.
"Who is she?" Steven asked Pearl, causing her to turn her head.
"Not all Pearls know each other Steven." Pearl said.
"Yeah." Jet chimed in. "Besides, I think our Pearl is cuter than that one." Pearl looked at Jet and let a deep blush form on her face. Jet was grinning from ear to ear and was about to say something else to flatter her more until the other Pearl started to speak.
"Who authorize you to make this call?" She said, placing her hands behind her back.
"No one." Peridot said, nervously. "But it's an emergency!"
"That's no excuse to use the direct diamond communication channel..." The Yellow Pearl continued,
"Pearl..." Another voice was heard, causing the Yellow Pearl to immediately stop talking.
"Yes, my diamond?" She answered looking away from Peridot.
"Why is there someone on the diamond line?" The voice asked.
"I don't know." Yellow Pearl said, looking towards the sound of the voice. "I was just about to tell her that-"
"I'll take it from here." The voice said, as a giant hand lifted the communicator in her end. The projector showed an image of a massive woman, her height making the Pearl standing next to her pale in comparison. She has a pointed, upturned nose, plump lips and an unusually long neck. Her hair is a short bob with two spikes tips. Jet noticed that her eyes appeared cold, as they are a bright yellow with diamond shaped pupils. Her clothing consisted of the bodysuit that Garnet wear except the colors were black and olive. She is wearing a yellow coat over it and she had a cut out for her gemstone. Her appearance caused Steven and the others to let out a gasp. Jet let out a low growl at the site off her.
"Is that-?" Amethyst started.
"Yellow..." Pearl said, covering her mouth a little.
"Diamond!" Garnet finished, staring at Yellow Diamond.
"My diamond! This is Peridot reporting in!" Peridot said, crossing her arms so where her hands form a diamond.
"Which Peridot?" Yellow Diamond asked, not bothering to even look at her.
"F-Facet 2F5L Cut 5XG. I'm sorry to contact you this way, but all forms of communication have been destroyed and-" Yellow Diamond held up a hand, silencing her for the moment.
"Seems that you are behind schedule on your mission to..." She paused for a moment. "How is the Earth?"
"It's...full of life." Peridot said, nervously.
"Organic life." Yellow Diamond said, glancing at her for a bit. "And where is the Jasper that I assigned you and why aren't you calling from the ship?"
"T-The ship was destroyed." Peridot said.
"By whom?" Yellow Diamond asked. Peridot eyes shifted towards where the crystal gems were hiding and then her eyes shifted back towards Yellow Diamond.
"I-It was destroyed by... no one. There was an accident while we were landing." Peridot said.
"I'll inform your manager of your incompetence." Yellow Diamond said, causing Peridot to have a look of worry on her face. "And what is the status of the cluster?"
"The cluster will emerge shortly." Peridot responded.
"Good." Yellow Diamond said, leaning back against her chair. "We'll finally get something out of that miserable planet. Thank you for your report Peridot. There will be a ship heading to your location to take you to your next assignment."
"Wait." Peridot said, causing Yellow Diamond to look at her. "I wouldn't have call just to waste your time with a report."
"You already have." Yellow Diamond said.
"No, I mean... the reason I called. The real reason is..." Peridot took a deep breath. "I think we should terminate the cluster."
"Why?" Yellow Diamond said, her voice lacking any emotion.
"The organic ecosystem creates resources you need to this world." Peridot explained. "We can't sacrifice all that potential just for one geo-weapon! I'd like to tell you some plans that I came up with to utilize the planet without disrupting the local-"
"I've heard enough!" Yellow Diamond said, interrupting her. "I don't care about potential and resources."
"What?" Peridot said in disbelief.
"I want my cluster and I want that planet to die just to make that happen." Yellow Diamond said. Jet found himself gritted his teeth at what Yellow Diamond just said.
'How cold is that woman?' Jet thought as he continued to listen to the conversation in front of him.
"No!" Peridot shouted, causing the Yellow Pearl to gasp. Yellow Diamond scowled at Peridot.
"Are you questioning my authority?" She asked in a cold tone.
"I'm questioning your objectivity, my diamond." Peridot said, saluting her.
"You are out of line." Yellow Diamond said, causing Peridot to sweat.
"I just think-" Peridot said, nervously.
"I'm not interested in the puny thoughts of a Peridot." Yellow Diamond stated.
"But-" Peridot started.
"You have disrespected this channel and my time with your presences and you would do will to..." Yellow Diamond continued.
"But-" Peridot started again.
"Shut Your Mouth!" Yellow Diamond yelled, causing Peridot to do just so. "You have failed at every stage of this mission. Your only chance to redeem yourself is to obey this simple order: you are to leave the cluster to grow. It will tear apart the Earth and I will take immense satisfaction in erasing that pitiful rock off our star map! Is That Clear?"
"I-I won't do it!" Peridot yelled. "I can tell you that there are things on this planet worth protecting!"
"What do you know about the Earth?" Yellow Diamond asked angrily.
"Apparently more than you, you clod!" Peridot yelled. Jet felt a slight chill from the angry look that Yellow Diamond was giving Peridot. Peridot started to sweat a little more upon realizing what she said and who she said it to. "Umm, Peridot out!"
And with that the diamond line closed and the crystal descended back into her hands. Now that Yellow Diamond wasn't in view, the crystal gems came out form their hiding spot. They cheered at what Peridot just displayed in front of them.
"That was amazing!" Steven said.
"I can't believe just did that." Peridot mumbled loud enough for them to hear. She was still sweating a lot.
"I was so wrong about being so wrong about you!" Steven said, smiling from ear to ear.
"I can't believe just did that." Peridot repeated, still in disbelief at what she did.
"You thought you could change her mind." Garnet said, smiling a bit.
"Yellow D got torn by the Perridactyl." Amethyst said. Peridot groaned in response to that.
"Can one of you take this?" She said, holding the crystal. Pearl grabbed it and looked back at her.
"Why?" Pearl asked.
"Because it can be remotely detonated." Peridot said, causing Pearl's eyes to widened. The crystal started to glow red, causing everyone to start to panic. Peridot seemed to have broken down a little at that point as she was laying on the ground in the fetal position.
"How do we stop it?" Pearl said, holding the crystal away from her.
"Just get rid of it!" Garnet said.
"Umm, here Amethyst." Pearl said, gently tossing it to her.
"What am I supposed to do with it?" Amethyst asked, as she caught it.
"Give me that." Jet said, gently grabbing it from her. He then proceeded to throw it far away from them. While it was airborne, he summoned his weapon and sent a wave of invisible energy towards the crystal. It immediately exploded, causing the crystal gems to sigh in relief.
"I thought I could reason with her." Peridot groaned, still on the ground.
"You really made her mad." Amethyst said, grinning at her.
"And then you insulted her to her face." Pearl chimed in.
"Do you know what this means?" Steven said, excitedly.
"I'm a traitor to my home world?" Peridot said.
"You're a crystal gem!" Steven said, reaching down to hug her. Peridot's eyes started to widened.
"Rather you like it or not." Garnet said, placing her hands on her hips.
