Disclaimer: Characters, settings, names from the cartoon television show 'Steven Universe' are creations and property of Rebecca sugar and Cartoon network. Any Non-steven universe characters, settings, names, Gems, Gem powers, beliefs, mythology are my own creation.
Author's Note: Steven and Carlo's battle is captured by Peridot, bells with Ruby and Sapphire head to destroy the communication tower. And Soren and the rest of the crystal gems makes their way to the location of a whole abandoned legion of warrior gems.
Story Tags: Steven Universe, Lapis Lazuli, OC's, Connie Maheswaran Pearl, Amethyst, Ruby, Sapphire, Bells, Whistles, Citrine, Peridot, Beach City, Gem Powers, Romance, Adventure, Comfort, Destiny.
Music Inspiration: "The Faith Militant Theme" By: Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones Soundtrack)
Chapter 28: One Way or Another
Saturday
May 18, 1:40 [Afternoon]
Communication Tower, Sakha Republic, Russia Location #1
A large cylindrical beam of pale blue light fired up past the top of a sea of forest. The light the beam gave off, shined through the forest. The beam of light lasted for only three seconds, then disappeared. Bells, Ruby and Sapphire appeared on a super ancient warp pad.
Bells wore black and white track pants, a white and black sleeveless winter vest and kept his padded black and white gloves and vintage racing goggles. Ruby and Sapphire did not change their clothes for this mission, and instead chose to keep the clothes they already had on.
"Wow, take a look at this place Sapph. Do you remember being in this part of the world a long time ago?" Ruby asked her partner.
"No. we landed in South America and traveled up northward into North America. Don't you remember Ruby?"
"You know I don't like thinking about the past or trying to guess the future babe, future vision is your shtick. The present is mine."
"Alright you two, enough talk. We need to traverse this terrain and locate this ancient communications tower. Sapphire, Soren shared with me your profile back at my home and I said you had the ability of Future vision. Can you find a scenario where we can find the tower with the least amount of risk and travel time?"
"I'll try, give me a minute admiral." Sapphire sat down on the ground, crossed her legs and placed her hands on her thighs."
"Ok. While you search, I'm going to levitate and see if I can find the tower in this sea of trees from a high vantage point. Ruby, I want you to patrol a one mile wide circumference while ruby and I look for the tower. neutralize anyone or anything that crosses that one mile circumference. That means putting down with non lethal force."
"Yes Sir! Ruby exclaimed with respect. She stomped her left foot on the floor and turned to establish the one mile circumference Bells wanted.
On Ruby's patrol, she ran on her self designated path. She came across some grazing deers that she knocked out with a karate chop to the back of their necks. But before she left the stunned and unconscious animals on the spot they fell on, something caught her attention. Something was moving around her. Whatever it was, it was big and growled.
"Finally something fun for me to do." Ruby said excitedly. She manifested her gauntlet and readied herself.
Two glowing pair of eyes peeked through wild shrubs, Ruby pounded her gauntlet into her other opened hand and dared whatever was hiding to come out.
"I'm right here! Come on, what are you chicken? Bok bok, bok, bok."
a large male brown bear let out high pitched moans, jumping through the brush and charging towards Ruby. It ran with ferocity and intent to kill. Ruby stepped to the side and avoided the bear. The brown bear slid on the ground, turning on it's paws and running back towards Ruby.
Ruby was ready this time to neutralize the bear. The brown bear charged towards her, with the distance between them closing, Ruby was about to knock out the large predator when;
BANG
Ruby shuddered to the sound of a powerful gunshot that rang and echoed from the side of her. The bear was struck in it's neck, the bullet shredding through muscle and severing its cervical vertebrae and killing it instantly. Some blood sprayed on Ruby's face, causing her to undo her gauntlet and wipe her face frantically and with disgust.
"Oh no it got on my face! Ugh! This blood is so nasty and sticky. Ick it's not coming off."
''я видел, что это работает в этом направлении!'' (I saw it running in that direction!)
Ruby heard the sound of a man shout from within the forest. He sounded enthusiastic and frantic. She knew Bells told her to neutralize anyone and anything who crossed the the circumference of her patrol. Ruby hopped up some trees and hid in the tree brushes. She saw two men in camouflage gear and carrying hunting rifles.
She quietly spied on them and listened to what they told each other, ruby had no idea what the men were saying in their native Russian. And she didn't care. "Ok ruby, jump down and knock both of them out. One...two...thr-"
"Ruby!" interjected Admiral Bells's voice in her head.
"Geez furball! I'm not deaf you know." Ruby communicated telepathically back to Bells.
"Furball? not the first time I've heard that. My Citrine calls me that when she's angry. Listen I need you to come back to me and Sapphire. Sapphire wasn't able to find a scenario where we head to the communication tower without talking to someone."
"What do you mean by that?" Ruby questioned.
"I mean that all three of us are going to have to interact with guards the Russian government has put up to keep the secret of this alien technology hidden from explorers and citizens. I found the tower hidden between a mountain valley by linking my mind to avian life flying overhead of us."
returning back to Bells and Sapphire's location, Ruby saw Bells leaning back on a tree with his arms crossed, explaining something to Sapphire.
"The mind is a powerful tool for those blessed enough and smart enough to master the most complex organ."
"We gems have no need for organs like organic beigns. All of our power comes from our gemstones, which are out real bodies."
"I know Sapphire. My wife is a Gem like you, but I was blessed enough that your species is able to reproduce with us 'organics.'"
"Admiral, I didn't mean it as an Offense to you-"
"I know you didn't mean it like that. Something Citrine or I didn't share with everyone else was that when I romanced her and dated her. She acted, or at least I felt like, she was throwing her superiority as a Gem at me. I may not be immortal, but every wrinkle I get is something I'm proud of."
"What are you two talking about, Sapphire?" Ruby asked, walking over to them.
"Just about mental based powers. It's Basic levels, Advance levels, Master levels and Ultimate levels."
"Oh? What's an ultimate level form of mental powers."
"One ultimate form of a mental power is known as Mindscape Transportation. A few martians in history were able to pull this feat off with little ease. Think about it, being able to trap physical things such as items, people or even entire towns or cities in your mind, then being able to pull them back out."
"Sounds like a lot of work."
"Maybe it is a lot of work, but think about it. You can basically have your own pocket dimension to pull in and pull back out whatever or whoever you want.
The Communication Tower
2:25 [Afternoon]
Walking down a lonely and abandoned dirt path, Admiral Bells walked in front of his small three man squad. Ahead of them the path seemed pretty straight forward, leading into the mountainous valley where the communication tower was located. But Bells, being a native Martian, was born with a list of mental powers. One of those was being able to see illusions casted on him, others or on the environment. Through his eyes, Bells saw the illusion as extremely faint waves around people, items or ares. Usually these faint clear like waves varied on size and shape. The current faint waves Bells saw covered the entire region in front of his team.
The illusion did not hide the mountains, but did hide the valley, in turn casting the illusion that there was no valley. Ruby stopped walking and also kept Sapphire from walking forward, she wondered why bells continued to walk down the path that ended on the side of this mountain.
"Admiral hold up! You're going to walk straight into that wall! Ruby shouted at him.
"No he isn't Ruby." Sapphire told her partner. She pulled her hand out of Ruby's grasp and followed Bells.
"Sapphire wait a second!"
Ruby ran after Sapphire but stopped when she saw sapphire and bells walk through a massive wall of mountain rock and stone. Ruby had to rub her eyes to double check she wasn't seeing things. She ran towards the walls the two walked through with her eyes closed and hands balled into fists. She expected to crash head first into stone, but she didn't.
She turned around after she went running into the wall. There was no wall, only the dirt path and the forest in the background. Ruby scratched the back of her head and shrugged her shoulders. She caught up with her team who stopped in front of an armed group of Russian secret soldiers. These secret soldiers watched, studied and guarded 'black sites' which were mostly made up of Alien spacecraft crash sites, ancient alien ruins or other anomalous items or effects.
The Russian guards numbered eight. Two were standing on a tank, two were inside of an armored jeep and the four others stood in front of the tank and jeep blocking the path to the tower. The soldiers became wide eye, their mouths hanged open when they took a look at the two small gems and the anthropomorphic black cat talking to them, then coming over to them. To the human team, the black cat was tall and a little scary. They knew the location they were guarding had an extraterrestrial object, in this case it was a 200 foot tall lilac colored cathedral like building.
There were signs of aging by the cracks and fracture lines on the tower and faded markings etched on it's surface and sides. Bells walked over to them, watching the soldiers struggling internally on whether they should raise their firearms or let him through. One soldier made up his mind, and chose to block him.
Bells smirked and stopped before the shoulder who strained himself to pretend he wasn't terrified or uncomfortable.
"State your purpose Alien!" The soldier asked nervously serious.
Bells closed his eyes, took a moment to inhale some air and then exhale it back out.
''Меня зовут Белла, Младший лейтенант Майкл. если вам интересно, как я говорю на русском языке. я просмотрел доминирующее полушарие вашего мозга и загрузить русский язык.''
(My name is Bells, Junior lieutenant Michael. If you're wondering how I'm speaking in Russian. I scanned the dominant hemisphere of your brain and downloaded the Russian language.)
Bells spent the next few minutes explaining who he was, who the gems were and how they were connected to the tower. He said he and the two gems accompanying him were sent by their own commanding officer to destroy it. The Russian soldiers replied that their government told them to protect and keep the Russian population from discovering this ancient alien ruin.
But bells told them that if they did not destroy the tower, the whole country of Russia would be met with powerful and cataclysmic disasters. Believing every word Bells shared with them, the soldiers allowed the trio passage to the communication tower.
"Nicely done Furball. You almost had them soil themselves, hah hah."
"i have to agree with my Ruby, Admiral. If for some reason the soldiers wouldn't allow us to pass, I was going to freeze them."
"Well now you'll be able to use those ice powers for some chaos and destruction."
"Yeah! Destruction!" Ruby shouted with a grin on her face.
Beach City
3:25 [Afternoon]
Returning back to Beach city, Carlos and Steven showed signs of their training and sparring match. Steven's track pants were covered in tears, dirt stains, mud staisn and cuts all around. His track jacket, what was left of it was torn and filthy. His tank top had dirt marks and tears in it. On Steven's cheeks were bruises and on the top left side of his forehead were abrasions that long since dried and healed before coming to beach city.
Carlos on the other hand showed signs of lots of damage taken by the friendly sparing match against his mentee, Steven. He tied his jacket around his waist and left only his black tank top on. His arms and shoulders were covered in dried abrasions. his hands were bruised and forearms dotted with cuts here and there. Carlos's face had no bruises, but the side of his neck had scuff marks.
Peridot followed Steven and Carlos from behind, she was busy watching the sparing match she considered and filed as "Battle between Lumber and Air."
Peridot's Recording
through a first person view, Peridot hid behind a sturdy tree and watched carefully Steven stand up from a pile of down torn trees.
"Log report, File name Battle between Lumber and Air. My leader and the one who freed me from the control of Commander Soren, is wearing what I can only describe as full body armor made out of the wooden material as the surrounding trees. The level of magical energy being given off by both of these hybrids are ranked 16. warrior gems on homeworld rank in magical energy by 15. Commanders by 100 and Goddesses by 1000's.
Right now Steven is surrounded by a powerful burning pink aura that appears to be growing bigger and taller. The magical properties in Steven's Aura that my scanner is showing shows a substantial increase in strength, stamina, endurance and speed to his physical being. I'm also seeing all of his other current magical abilities. One of those is clearly Xylokinesis, the ability to generate and manipulate what humans call 'lumber.' the applications are many. creation, generation, manipulation, branch generation, camouflage, matter surfing, Xylokinetic constructs, efficacy manipulation, flora energy manipulation, flower manipulation, fruits/vegetables manipulation and more.
Right now Steven's aura is growing two very large pink see-through arms and hands. He appears to be, covering those in the same wooden armor as the one he's wearing. Over off in the distance, I can see the other hybrid, Carlos surrounded by a large swirling olive green vortex which grew four muscular see-through arms.
Carlos's Aura showed me something unbelievable, his magical abilities and Elemental abilities were substantially much higher and longer than those of Steven. Apart from being extremely proficient in Air based abilities, there was a knowledge of weather manipulation and sound manipulation. Even more, there was a hidden reserve of massive magical energy hiding within him. This hybrid apparently mastered much of his gem's power, I wonder if Steven will follow in his footsteps?"
Battle of Auras
Steven's burning pink Aura slowed down, his two aura arms now firmly armored in thick wooden armor. The hands bumped fists, ready for a fight. Steven rushed through the forest, using the blowing winds coming from within the forest to help him locate Carlos. Steven located Carlos in the middle of a circular section of downed trees, he was in a boxing position.
Steven took in the sight in front of him. Carlos's aura was very tall and wild, like an air vortex. four muscular arms grew out of his own aura. However, these aura constructed hands did not have the round shield, sword or spear that he saw when Carlos first revealed himself to be a hybrid. Instead, it only gripped the dark green sphere of 'super charged wind energy' as he told him before. From the one dark green sphere in hand, it entered through the palm of the hand holding it, and sunk down into the forearm; disappearing.
This caused the aura hands or fists, to be encased by mini rotating tornadoes that let out high pitched sounds from the intense oscillation of air. The pointed ends of these mini tornadoes jutted out in front of the fists.
"Just a reminder Steven, our aura and the constructs that we make from them are not completely indestructible. They have a shatter point. The damage they give and the damage they can take is only measured by our physical, mental and magical progress."
"Thanks for the reminder Carlos. Haaaaaahhh!" Steven shouted on his charge towards Carlos.
Steven made his aura hands mimic the shape of pistols, pressing his hands together he uttered the words "Arbor Method, Lumber Shots." firing from the index fingers of Steven's armored aura hands, Steven fired a barrage of wooden spherical bullets at Carlos. One of Carlos's arms stretched out and launched itself towards the bullets. The mini tornado cone grew wider and thinner, creating a clear see through round shield of spinning razor sharp air. The bullets crashed against the shield, creating a cloud of wooden fragments which flew in all directions.
Steven paused firing bullets when he saw he was getting nowhere. He was starting to show signs of sweat and heavy breathing. Steven pushed past the growing fatigue and made two equally large wooden pair of arms and hands to grow out of his back. They were to level the field with Carlos who had four arms with him.
Reacting to an unspoken signal, Steven fired his armored aura hands and two other fully wooden hands at Carlos. In response Carlos fired his own and concentrated on punching and blocking Steven's own fighting hands.
"The wood Steven generated must have been made out of the toughest wood known to earth, hmm the name is in spanish. "Quebra Hacha" or Axe breaker. That would explain why those wooden constructs of Steven's aren't being ripped or torn by Carlos's rotating air that...so annoying! Urgh! The oscillating air is going to fracture my poor gemstone."
Peridot covered her ears in hopes she could block out the ear shattering screech. Regardless, she continued to watch the fight. but all she saw was a blur of olive green and dark brown firing back and forth. The sound of large booms from the clash of connecting fists and bursts of air they gave off blew around trees were also recorded.
the clash of wooden and air fists generated a wide spanning cloud of dust, dirt and wooden fragments. Large stone that happened to be in the way, were smashed to smithereens. Carlos was the first to stop his assault when his mini tornadoes were all but gone.
"I had hoped to peel away that armor, seeing Steven and his constructs right now, I only managed to peel away fifty percent of that lumber. He must have changed the composition of the wood on an atomic level and hardened it even more, so much it rivals even tempered steel. He's a mad genius this kid.
Ok Steven, that does it for a friendly match between Auras. Let's take a break first before moving on to a display of elemental powers, it's clear you're very skilled in using wood. Of course, the element of wood is a sub power of Nature."
Steven undid his aura and the wooden helm around his head. Steven's face was covered in sweat, his black curls hung down the side of his face and forehead.
"That's great Carlos, oh boy I need to rest. Peridot! Where are you!"
Abandoned Gem Base, Antarctica, Location #2
4:30 EST [Evening]
Soren's team which was made up of Lapis, Amethyst and Pearl, walked through a snowstorm in the southernmost continent of Antarctica. Soren, unlike Pearl or Lapis did not keep his forearms raised up to his face to cover his eyes from blowing snow. Hitting his eyes. Amethyst however, was given a temperature regulated force-field whose outside surface temperature measured one hundred and thirty degrees.
Which meant snowflakes that blew toward her face melted and evaporated long before they could hit her in the face. To make sure none of them got lost in this near zero visibility environment, Soren created a glowing red chain link that was tied around his waist and connected to everyone else in that order. Soren knew where he was going, and he wasn't bothered or affected by the snowstorm in the least. He still had his slight limp that he received from his battle with Leo Kunzite. It didn't appear like it impeded Soren from walking, running or doing any other kind of activity. He acknowledged that Steven and Lion gave him this limp, didn't sound bummed but rather almost proud of it. And he never brought It back up.
Lapis was getting tired of the snowflakes hitting her in the face, so she created a helmet made from clear ice with water she generated in her hands. Pearl was the only one in the group who did not have anything to keep herself shielded from the cold or blowing snowflakes. Lapis turned around, walked backwards and spoke to Pearl.
"Lapis I can't hear anything you're telling me. Turn around before you trip and bring us all down with you." pearl warned lapis.
Lapis kept talking and made funny faces at Pearl. Pearl shook her head and rolled her eyes. She rubbed her shoulder with her hands, trying to keep warm.
"Sweet magic Soren how far is this location!" Pearl asked loudly, sounding very annoyed.
"Relax Pearl, he'll let us know when we've gotten there." Amethyst chimed in.
"Oh, so says the Commander's favorite gem." Pearl said sharply, replying to Amethyst walking behind her.
"Hey don't get mad at me because you're so angry, just think about snuggling up to carlos to help keep you warm."
"At least I have someone to snuggle up against! Who do you have?"
"I don't need anyone. I'm a lone wolf. looking for fun and trouble. sometimes in the same day."
"Oh riiight. Before we warped down to Patagonia. I saw you stepping real close to Soren there, you have a crush on him. Hey Lapis, amethyst has a crush on Soren."
Lapis looked confused, but laughed nonetheless. "Enough!" Soren shouted angrily at all of them.
On his turn, he cleared a large field of the snowstorm, causing the area to steam up from his anger and the radiation of heat he game from it. His annoyance also melted the ice helmet Lapis made for herself.
"We're here." Soren said very stoically. He went down on one knee and pressed his gauntlet down on the steaming ice shelf and burned a ten foot wide hole down until there was a tunnel that lead down to solid ground.
"So Commander, how exac-"
"So Soren, how exactly did you find this hidden base?" Amethyst asked politely, cutting Pearl's more annoyed sounding question in half.
"I found this location when I was tunneling down below your temple, to make myself a room and holding area for prisoners. I pressed my hand on the side of the walls and sent out small scale waves of magical energy that rippled through the layers of the earth. Much like how echolocation works for marine and flying animals on this planet, the gem signals of a massive legion returned back to me. That's how I knew there was a hidden base of warrior gems."
Lapis watched Pearl cross her arms and shiver. She looked all around her and saw nothing but white and the blowing snowflakes all around them. The vastness of the frozen continent in contrast to this base filled with a legion of mindless gem warriors made her think and asked.
"Commander." Lapis started.
"Yes Water gem, was is it."
Water Gem? Look, i've been thinking about this since you first shared this with us back in the temple. Why do we have to destroy this army of warrior gems, can't we do something to make them serve us and protect the earth when Homeworld attacks?"
"As I said back when we were in the temple, Rose Quartz was and is the only gem who could give her legion orders. They were programmed to exterminate all life on earth, only her voice, her orders could override their programming."
"I've never seen Warrior Gems, I mean there's garnet." Amethyst said from the side.
"Ruby is a warrior, so garnet is half warrior. It would explain why she was able to stand her ground against Jasper. I've almost reach the bottom. When we go down there, and you see the warriors, do not feel anything for them. Trust me, after commanding my own legions to conquer the planets and moons of enemy species. I've seen what their capable of, their lack of compassion and sympathy for their targets and conquered species is everything you would expect from a well regimented and trained legion."
Soren pulled his gauntlet off of the ground when there was a wide enough passage for them to descend down to. The commander raised his hand up and encased his team in blood red sphere of energy. The sphere levitated and moved over above the entrance of the well. They descended down the pitch blackness into a land that has not seen the light of day for millenia.
When they reached the bottom, the sphere landed on the ground and opened up and vanished.
"Wow! Talk about true darkness!...darkness...darkness" Amethyst's voice echoed over and over.
Pearl used her gemstone to shine a light, like a flashlight. But her light did not have a far enough range or was powerful enough. Soren raised his left arm and fired balls of light from the tips of his fingers. Five of these balls flew toward 100 yard before splitting up and flying up to the icy ceiling. They remained equally distant apart from each other, they then expanded immensely in size, lighting up the pitch blackness that held dominion over this location for a very long time.
When the spheres of light lit the entire space up. Pearl, Lapis and Amethyst gasped and pressed their hands on their mouths at what they saw. Their eyes were wide and their face expressed shock.
Located in in the back of this enclosed space, was a turquoise colored ziggurat with black hieroglyphs on it's walls. Soren walked forward, with Amethyst following him closely behind. The closer the team got, the more the pyramid took on a dirtier, filthier appearance than when they looked at it from afar. Something about the ancient structure gave off a different kind of coldness than from the surrounding ice. It felt evil, menacing and threatening.
Soren lead the team up the long steps into the the building, inside there was a large mural in front of them on wide and long wall. The mural had the eerily Familiar silhouette of gem with glowing pink eyes and navel. In front of her, were other silhouettes of warrior gems with held spears, swords, tridents, gauntlets and axes all kneeling before her.
When Soren approached the mural on the wall, three doors opened up. To Pearl and Amethyst this reminded them of that time they were in the pyramid temple with Steven and Garnet a long time ago.
Soren looked at the three opened doorways and took a moment to scan them with his mind. In the direction of the first entrance located on the far left, Soren said "That leads to the armory. The middle leads to a Galaxy Warp. The far right leads to the legion of warrior gems. I'm going down the middle path."
"For what?" Lapis questioned.
"To destroy the galaxy warp. You don't want non friendly gems or commanders coming through to this world, do you? While I destroy the galaxy warp pad, I want all of you to destroy those warrior gems. leave none of them alive!"
Soren changed into a thick cloud of black smoke and traveled down the middle path.
"You heard the man gems! Let's go do what we're told." Amethyst told her teammates.
Abandoned Gem Warrior Room
Walking down a darkened hallway, Pearl, Lapis and Amethyst reached the end of the hallway and walked into a very very large dark room. The room was as wide as a soccer field. Old horizontal lights on the ceilings turned on, one by one. When the first rows of light lit up, Pearl and Lapis shuddered and stepped back from shock.
Standing together abreast, one thousand gem warriors made up the first row of this long abandoned legion. They were six foot tall, armored in black and pink armor. They all had their head facing downward at the floor. Some held on to battle axes with both hands, others rested the blades of their Great Swords on their shoulder guards.
Pearl teared up and pressed her hands firmly on her mouth. She walked in front of these ancient warriors with sadness and pain in her heart. Their eyes remained closed this entire time. They remained loyal for the better half of six millenia. Ever patient, forever loyal, waiting for orders that would never come. Their armor plating and parts, like their vambraces, breast plates and shin guards were rusted and falling apart.
"Well you two, time to destroy these poor fools." Amethyst manifested her whip out of her gemstone and was prepared to annihilate scores of them, when Pearl told her not to.
"Didn't you hear what Commander So-"
"I know what that bastard said. My question right now is Do we really have to kill them?"
"Pearl. There's six thousand of them," Lapis chimed, "even if Bells and those other two destroy the tower. When Homeworld gets here with their battleships, they'll probably find a way to rewrite their programming or the control their under or whatever. Soren has a point, what if they wake up and spread over the world."
"I know that Lapis. But maybe Steven can control them, maybe not telepathically but vocally. I don't know what it is, but I know that destroying them isn't the solution. There's always an alternative. They can serve as Steven's Army."
"Lapis is correct Pearl." said Soren from the entrance of this room. Pearl, Lapis and Amethyst turned around, shuddering when they heard Soren's commanding voice.
"Soren I -" Pearl spoke, nervous fear in her voice.
"I expected that by the time I got here, I would have seen mounds of gem dust or at least shattered pieces. Why haven't any of you done what i've ordered. Lapis? Amethyst?"
Up to this point Amethyst felt the same kind of fear Pearl was feeling, and Lapis, as much of a brave face as she was putting on; was shaking. Amethyst decided to speak for Pearl.
"Soren, commander. What if Pearl is right, maybe Steven can control them. I means, he is half of rose. The good half I guess."
"That's impossible. Steven is a hybrid, not a complete gem. The only way he stands a chance at commanding these warriors is if he had rose's other half of yin and yang energy; the other half of her gem. That beast he calls Lion is from Homeworld, a creature of pure raw magical energy. Rose retreated back into her gemstone and fused with that beasts being. His magical energy would keep her alive and keep her from dying.
When Steven fused with lion, for a while he was rose and beast. I saw it. Until he can master the full power of his half of his mother's gem powers, then he won't be commanding this legion anytime soon. And pulling out Rose's other half of yin and yang to help steven isn't something I can do. Only Steven can do that. If I tried, I might...destroy her accidentally."
"Then you're underestimating Steven! You know nothing about him! You say you're this planet's temporary guardian, fine! These gems might have lost their wills, but their still living beings just like you, me and everyone else on this planet. These warriors will not meet the sword, Not Yoday!"
Pearl shouted bravely and with sheer confidence at Soren. Her voice echoed in this large mammoth room.
Soren took a step back, a sign of defeat? Or was he only humoring Pearl. Soren nodded his head and furrowed his brows, angrily. He looked over at Lapis and Amethyst, he smiled warmly at Amethyst who smiled nervously back at him.
"Amethyst and Lapis, please wait for me and pearl outside. preferably the entrance would be the best place to wait for us. Please. I'm not going to hurt Pearl."
Amethyst looked up at Lapis who nodded back at her. Lapis walked outside of the room first with Amethyst following behind. When it was clear that they were gone, Soren had a few words for Pearl.
"Back on Homeworld Pearl, I would have had you tortured by my own power for disobeying an order. You're only saving grace is that this isn't Homeworld."
Soren walked around pearl as he spoke, then stopped in front of her and pulled her close by wrapping an arm around her back. His left gauntlet slid down her back, before stopping on her ass and slowly caressing it and squeezing it. Pearl closed her eyes tightly, whimpering and trembling her fists as Soren's other hand grabbed her by her chin and tilted her face up towards his face.
"If you ever want to have something more with that hybrid mate of yours Pearl. if you want to look at the face of your child and help it grow rather than say goodbye to it after birthing it, then you're going to follow orders even if it mean forcing you to. You're a pearl after all, you follow orders by those who you belong to. But judging by how you dolled yourself up and how you can manifest your own weapon, I'd say you're not like the others. You used to belong to someone, and now you belong to someone else.
Be glad he can see you for being something more than just eye and arm candy. Pearl, hmph. Your kind get used and thrown out like last century's newest service gem all the time back on Homeworld. Now, there are six thousand warrior gems here Pearl. You want Steven to have an army, fine. What's the half of six thousand?...I Said What's the Half of-"
"Its Three Thousand! Three thousand!" Pearl cried out, tears running down her cheeks.
"Exactly, three thousand. I'm going to let go of you, then I'm going to pull aside three thousand warriors of your choosing. After I pull away the three thousandth, you're going to destroy the rest on your own. or you can say goodbye to this world, Steven, the baby you'll never birth and your hybrid partner. NOW START CHOOSING!"
Soren let his hold on pearl go. Pearl then tearfully pointed over at the warrior gems she chose to save. The choices were random, the whole selection took over an hour. When the last warrior gem was pulled aside, Soren gave Pearl the order to eliminate the rest. Pearl manifested her spear, walked over to a white colored gem with a gray and dark color palette. She gripped her spear in her hands and bowed her head, mumbling a prayer of forgiveness softly and quietly to the gem in front of her.
"Start destroying those gems Pearl or you can say goodb-"
"I'M GETTING TO IT YOU FUCKING WARMACHINE!" Pearl snapped at Soren.
Soren brought his hands behind his back, watching Pearl destroy the other three thousand remaining warriors one by one. Her shadow on the walls sliced, thrusted, pierced and stabbed at the defenseless gems.
When the entire heartbreaking ordeal was finished, Pearl made her spear vanish. She made her way over to the exit and went back to join Lapis and Amethyst. The life and joy that was once in her blue eyes, was all but gone. With only the warriors shattered gem remains left, he pointed his opened palm at the pile and super heated them until their was nothing left of them, not even dust.
(!) "WOW, what drama near the end of this chapter huh. This chapter was truly something else for me to write. I wrote this chapter not only to further the story, but to show what makes Soren ruthless and cold in his own way. Next chapter, the anointing of Whistles the third hybrid OC. And a few other surprises. Also, after learning from the show that Peridot was small, In my story she is tall even without her limb enhancements. To me they serve more like armor pieces."