Steven leaped from the bed, the questions about pink diamond he had planned to ask Garnet pushed from his mind. Another leap took him from the perch on which his bed rested to the living room below. Amethyst dropped the back of chips on which she'd been snacking and rose from the couch, readying her whip as she did seeing the wide eyed look on Steven's face.
"Garnet, Rose, I need you guys." He called to the temple door.
"Uh dude, what's going on?" Amethyst asked as they waited for a response. Steven answered without taking his eyes off the door.
"Something bad is happening, we need to talk to Peridot right now." Amethyst nodded and dismissed her weapon as the door to the temple's heart slid open and both of the other gems hurried out looking worried.
"Steven, what. . ." Garnet was about to ask but he held up his hand.
"I'm just going to come out and say this. I snuck Jasper out of the temple yesterday to ask her some questions." A look of shock came over all three gems, with Garnet looking over her shoulder towards the temple door. "I poofed her and put her back in a bubble. You guys can be mad or disappointed later, what's important right now is she told me that the cluster was something really dangerous, and Peridot knows all about it. Just now when I was floating around in everyone's memories I think I saw the cluster's, it was big, and it was so. . .discordant, whatever it is, I think it's waking up. We need to talk to Peridot." When he said that his eyes swung to Rose. The others looked between them in bewilderment.
Uhm, what?" Amethyst asked and Steven answered.
"On the ship when we were flying back to earth Rose hid Peridot's gem inside her lion's mane, just like she did with her sword. I could see through the ship's cameras, I watched her do it." He hadn't planned for this to be a confrontation, he had wanted to talk to her in private, but what he felt in his dreams was too important to wait. Rose stood there, stunned for a moment as all three of them turned to face her. She composed herself quickly, giving a little laugh and slapping her forehead.
"Of course, I completely forgot." She played the role of bumbling goofball well but now that he was looking for it Steven could see the cracks in her performance, the slight tightness around her eyes, the way she bit at her lower lip. "I wasn't sure if the ship had something that might prevent the bubble from leaving so I decided to put Peridot somewhere safe." She motioned towards the temple and gave a whistle. The door opened onto her cloud filled room and Lion came sauntering out. "With all the excitement I just forgot to get her out again." Rose's face grew a little more serious now, and that at least Steven believed. "But if what you say is true we do need to talk to her. "
Amethyst and garnet exchanged skeptical looks, as Rose leaned down into her lion's mane. "I'll only be a moment." As she slid all the way in Steven watched intently, the gem in his forehead glowing gently, keeping his eyes fixed on the lion's mane until she emerged once again. As she did she pulled a smaller green form along with her, a wide eyed Peridot stepped from the lion, looking at each of them, but never at the larger pink gem holding her hand.
The other gems took up ready stances, their weapons coming into their hands but Peridot only flinched at the sight. Rose gently stepped in front of the little green gem, motioning for them to lower their weapons.
"It's alright, Peridot and I had a little chat and she's agreed to tell us all about the cluster, and to help us stop it, isn't that right?" She asked as she stepped aside and looked down. Peridot nodded, doing her best to meet Steven's eyes.
"That's right, I'll do whatever I can." She swallowed hard and stole a glance up at Rose, who just smiled down at her, encouragingly. "The Cluster is a weapon, the culmination of a series of fusion experiments in the last days of the war for earth." Another stolen look at Rose before she hurriedly continued. "It's the collected shards of every Gem shattered that we could collect." Rose's face darkened at that and Peridot shivered, finding no more friendly looks from the others. "They were. . .forced to fuse together, and they've slowly been building to formation for thousands of years. According to the records and the readings I took before you smashed the controls at the kindergarten, it's a matter of weeks before it emerges. . .shattering the earth from the inside out."
It was all together a lot to take in. Garnet despite being a gem looked like she might be sick. He imagined her thinking about all those shards forced together against their will, he knew how terrible that would be for her to imagine. Amethyst on the other hand had a look of near panic as she cast her eyes down as if trying to take in the whole of the earth beneath her. As for Steven himself he did his best to control his emotions with long deep Rose knelt, one hand on Peridot's shoulder.
"We can't let this overwhelm us, it's terrible what's been done, but we're still here, and we know about it now, we can stop it." Looking to Peridot with that motherly smile of hers. "Can't we Peridot?" Peridot nodded furiously, her arms moving as if on instinct towards her chest, but she caught herself and lowered them again.
"Of course, I've come up with several plans as to how could accomplish that already. . .Though I would suggest that we contact homeworld for supp. . ." She was cut off by a chopping motion from Rose. ". . .But that won't really be necessary, so long as I'm given an adequate work space, supplies and my limb enhancers."
"Don't do it." Came a voice from behind that drew everyone's attention. Lapis stood at the door to the temple arms crossed and eyes cast down. Steven's expression softened at seeing her.
"Lapis! Are you feeling better?" He pushed passed the other gems to sprint over to pull her into a tight embrace. Lapis gave a snorting laugh as she returned the hug.
"A little, yeah. You can't give her, her limb enhancers back there's a direct line to homeworld in those things." Peridot grumbled but Steven giggled as he broke the hug.
"I know, I've been experimenting with those things for a while, I already disabled the transponders in them, and on the ship." Lapis sighed in relief at that and Peridot gave a defeated groan. "We still shouldn't give her access to the ship though. If I'm not there to watch her she might be able to take control of it again." He turned to look at the other gems, scratching at the back of his head. "I think I know a place we can put her and she can work.
Peridot perked up a little as the others looked curiously at him. "A lab?" She asked hopefully.
"Not exactly, Steven hedged." Before long they were in Greg's van, well Steven, Amethyst, Peridot, and Rose were in the van, Garnet rode on top and Lapis flew above.
"So, what precisely is, a barn?" Peridot asked straining on her tip toes to see over the seats and out the windshield.
"Something far away from people where we can work. You still set on the drill idea?" Steven asked as they rumbled along. Peridot turned back to him and nodded.
"We'll need to dig down to where the cluster is being housed beneath the mantle, then use the drill to break it apart before it can form and destroy this planet and all of us with it. I would be able to illustrate better with my limb enhancers." A hint of hopefulness mixed in with the scorn.
"You get them back when we get to the barn." Before she could argue Greg chimed in from the front where he sat with Amethyst.
"Then you better give them back kiddo, because we're here." The van came to a stop and Rose opened the back doors as Peridot giggled to herself.
"Nyehehehe finally." She leapt out of the van, only to stumble as she came to her feet. Steven was there to catch her as she fell, Rose smiling down at the two of them as she straightened her smaller dress. "This ground is so uneven I don't know how you manage." She said as Steven let go, and she steadied herself. Lapis landed nearby as Garnet back flipped from the Van's roof. Greg and Amethyst stepped from the van.
They all found themselves in front of the large red barn, the doors slightly ajar with junk spilling out. Peridot crossed her arms as she looked over the structure. "Well this is. . .unremarkable. We're here." She turned to Steven tapping her foot impatiently. He sighed but reached up to his gem and produced the discarded limb enhancers. As she began to slip them on Rose put a hand on her shoulder.
You swore to me you would make no attempt to bring harm to anyone on this planet, I expect you to keep your word." There was a rigid hardness to her voice Steven had heard few times before, and it made his stomach tighten hearing it. Peridot swallowed hard but nodded as she continued to accessorize herself. Before long she was standing slightly taller than Steven, experimenting with the floating nodes that resembled fingers.
"I can feel your code in these." Shooting Steven a disdainful look. "You're right the transponders won't work for me and. . .Oh come on you disabled the weapons systems?" Steven and Amethyst exchanged a smug look and he shrugged.
"If you're not going to hurt anybody you won't need weapons." She grumbled again but when she opened one of her screens the look of joy that came over her was obvious to everyone.
"Log date 7-01-2 My limb enhancers have been returned to me and I have begun a mission in conjunction with the crystal gems of earth to destroy the cluster, as per the orders of their leader, Rose Quartz." They all traded looks with each other but said nothing as Peridot stepped forward and began a scan of the barn's interior. "This looks like sufficient material to begin work on the drill, though things would go a lot faster with my plug robonoids. Steven shook his head.
"Most of them were destroyed in the fight with Jasper, and I'm not trusting you with the ones I have left." Peridot sighed but nodded.
"Fine I can begin sorting through all this mess for now, I doubt I'll require any assistance." Amethyst blew out a breath and rested her fists on her hips.
"Oh yeah like we're just gonna leave you alone to try and get off world again?" Garnet nodded in agreement with her sentiment.
"Someone will need to keep an eye on her." Steven rubbed at his chin, watching as Rose kept a stern, but almost icy look fixed upon the little green gem.
"We could take shifts, garnet in the morning, me during the day. . ." He was cut off by Lapis stepping forward.
"I'll watch her." They all turned to look at her, the area around the barn going silent. "Yeah I can do it, might be fun to be someone else's warden for a change." Peridot gave her a dubious look but nodded.
"I suppose that's acceptable." Though she did turn back to check with Rose who gave the slightest nod of her head.
"We'll send someone to check on your progress every day." Rose then turned to Lapis. "I was wrong about you Lapis, thank for doing this for us." A slight blush appeared on Lapis' face and Steven nudged her side eliciting a laugh from both of them.
"You sure you're good with this Lapis?" Steven asked, she smiled at him and ran his fingers through his hair.
"I am, I can take care of this." She winked and stepped back. "I'll keep her in line and on mission." She smirked over at Peridot, who shivered at the sight.
"Alright." Steven nodded. "We'll go and let you get started." He stepped forward and held his hand out. "Thank you Peridot." She looked suspiciously between him and the extended hand. "You shake it." Still looking skeptical she extended the fingers of her limb enhancer to grip his hand and swing it side to side. He laughed but moved with her.
"You're. . .welcome?" He released the fingers and stepped back. They all piled back into the van, minus Lapis and Peridot, and made their way back towards beach city.
"We should consider installing a new warp near the barn. . ." Garnet began chatting with Rose about the logistics of it as Amethyst and Greg played road games up front. Steven watched the barn vanish in the distance, an odd mix of hope and worry bubbling up in his chest.
"Good luck guys." He sighed, and looked back at Rose. The concern over the cluster had pushed his concerns about her to the back of his mind, but now that there was a plan in place they all came rushing back.
