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: Ok we're nearing the end of this story and I have been going through the finale over my head again and again hope you all enjoyed the ride, but every ride must come to an end.

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: "Signal VI" By: Sabled Sun

Chapter 40: Memento Mori ("remember that you must die")

Wednesday

August 27, 2016, 8:00 [Morning]

Jasper's Mansion, Gem Homeworld

Two days after Steven and his friends lifted the darkness up from The Earth and with Carlos's help, sent the darkness stored and sealed in a bubble created by Steven from his own power off to the outer edges of the Milky way; never to return again. Connie displayed an ascended level of gem power, something that did not escape Commander Soren's sight and detection.

Steven and Carlos with the addition of Soren and Connie took to preparing for what was to come next, be it another attack sent to earth or even the long awaited confrontation with Yellow Diamond and whoever she brought with her. But back over on home world, new developments were taking place and it starts with Jasper in her Mansion on 'Ghar.'

Jasper's Mansion was large, one that was worthy and befitting of a battle tested and proven general of many of Homeworld's Generals and Admirals. Jasper was seated in front of a glossy white levitating table with folders and piles of paperwork on it. Jasper leaned back on the back rest of her hovering chair as she read through some reports about small rebellions that were squashed by loyal homeworld soldiers on different conquered planets and colonies.

Jasper placed the paper back down on her desk with a tired sigh. She crossed her strong arms across her chest and looked out her window at the starry night sky and thought out loud to herself.

"These colonies are becoming and growing more restless with her majesty's rule. One report on planet Bagheera says the common gems and the natives have been hybridizing and now there hybrid off springs make up half of the population. With their combined natures and powers of both species, their challenging the ruling principalities and noble houses in their lands. On another planet, Planet Mercurio in the Lisa Galaxy us also experiencing the same problems.

And we can't keep making examples of rebellion leaders and the rebels for the rest of the population to get the message. Their becoming more hardened to public executions and seeing dead loved ones is only igniting more rebellions and leading to more instability in our empire. Yellow Taffeite if your essence is still alive, please look down on your successor with mercy."

Knock* Knock* Knock*

"Yes!? Who is it!?" Jasper shouted in the direction of her bed chamber's doors.

"It's me my lady, Nephrite"

"What the hell do you want Servant?"

"you're presence is required in the queen's chamber right now. She said you may come as you are now, she says it's urgent"

"Tell her i'll be there as soon as possible!" Jasper told her servant gem. She stood from her hovering chair and walked into her polishing kiosk where she changed into her usual bodysuit and polished her gemstone which in turned made her look clean, shiny and presentable.

The kiosk door slid open with Jasper wearing her regular bodysuit. She grabbed her cape hanging from a hook on the wall and attached it to her shoulders, left her bedchamber and made her way to the Queen's warp pad.

Yellow Diamond's Castle

Jasper warped from her mansion to the front of yellow diamond's castle on the ruling family's own continent in only a matter of seconds, a trip which would have taken several hours in a vehicle from Ghar to the royal family's private continent estate.

Jasper walked up the long steps up reach the two massive golden doors which opened up in response to jasper nearing the entrance. At the top, jasper took a moment to look out at over to the horizon. The continent was massive, beautiful and a glory to behold. She turned back to direction of the opened castle doors and walked inside. An Anatase servant approached the old general and lead her to the same elevator from her previous visit when she arrived back home.

In the elevator Jasper gathered her courage and thoughts and tried to remain as calm and level headed as possible. There was no telling what Yellow Diamond wanted or what she may ask of Jasper. Whatever her majesty wanted, jasper would execute it, no arguments.

The elevator door slid open when it reached the fifth floor, the last floor of the castle and the floor of Yellow Diamond's Throne room. Jasper walked out, looking back over her shoulder at the Anatase gem servant bowing her head as the elevator door slid close.

Jasper rose her face and saw Commander Olivine standing alongside Yellow Diamond who was seated on her throne which sat on a tall twenty foot right triangle platform. Yellow diamond and Olivine had their backs turned to Jasper, all of the lights were turned off except for one giant source of light coming from the back wall behind Yellow Diamond's throne. The light came from a holo screen, a giant bright holo screen whose light casted flickering shadows all over the walls of the thrones room. The shadows danced erratically, almost like they were alive.

"My child, what are you doing still waiting at the base of the stairs of my throne platform? Come up so I may brief you on why I summonsed you."

Jasper bowed her head and walked up the steps leading up to yellow diamond's throne. She was nervous to be in the presence of not just her leader but her son as well, it was probably a good thing, a fortunate thing olivine's other brothers weren't here.

It felt like Jasper was walking forever just to reach yellow diamond's throne, but when she finally reached the top, she immediately went down on one knee out of respect.

"Arise Jasper," Yellow diamond asked her decorated general, "stand and take a look at the screen in front of you. Tell me, what do you see"

Jasper rose to her feet and stared at the giant screen her leader told her to watch. Jasper saw a profile page of a 10,000 foot tall creation made entirely out of clear crystal with multicolored marks of shapes like a triangle, square, circle, trapezoid etc, all over it's body. Its chest was large, it's arms were big and powerful, all four of them. Its legs were big, it's back strong and large as a mountain. But it's most distinguishing feature was perhaps it's head, firmly rooted atop a strong and unbreakable neck was a skull which changed color and two glowing dots in its dark eye sockets.

Looking at the skull face of the crystal skull frightened jasper, though it was only an image, she felt herself wanting to retreat into her stone to avoid looking at any longer than necessary.

"Gives you the shakes doesn't Jasper," Commander Olivine spoke, turning his focus to her, "I have to admit, when I had looked at it for the first time, it made me feel...fear. My mother and leader was the only gem to ever make me feel fear."

Jasper nodded at the commander and turned to ask yellow diamond about the crystal skull, but yellow diamond already knew of Jasper's curiosity and saved her the trouble of having to ask her about it.

"The crystal skull is, was a creation of my ancient predecessor, Taaffeite. She was known as 'mad' for creating parasite gems. If I was a part of her court during her reign, I would have praised her. The crystal skull is pure raw magic made physical. It's completely undetectable to anyone other than my self or members of the diamond authority."

"Byt your grace, you are the last of the diamond authority" Jasper put in.

"No need to remind me jasper. The crytal skull is currently asleep, it resides under the continent called 'Africa' in the backwater planet. Recent mission reports and data sent back to me from the machine of plagues has been very disheartening. My traitor of a son Soren, and the rebel leader and traitor Rose quartz along with her small team of rag tags including the peridot assigned to you jasper. Not to mention the noble Lapis lazuli.

But that's not the most disturbing news that came from the machine, its scanners also showed the gem signatures of two powerful gems. One came back as belonging to Commander Smoky and another from an Olivine Gem."

"Commander Smoky? And an Olivine Gem?" Jasper said in confusion.

"I know that Commander Smoky is the son of Red Beryl and served as Taafeitte's main commander. He was at one point the unstoppable force and might of the gem empire, a truer commander above all others. However, something happened to him and other commanders who were stationed on the planet Mars in the solar system. They turned their back on their loyalty to Taaffeite and homeworld and chose to protect that planet and the native martians. If he is still alive, that will prove more than problematic. And then there's the other powerful source detected by the machine, the gem signature belonged to the warrior class Moldavine. And to remind you, a gem's signature also has the age of the gem, and this Moldavite gem has been estimated to be over 1400 years old."

"It could be a survivor from the gem rebellion from five thousand year ago mother, what do you think?" Commander Olivine asked his mother.

"whether they are or aren't, it makes no difference now. They've been alive for so long now, that they now have power to rival my most strongest son. No matter, I have decided to cancel the last three plagues from commencing from the machine of plagues. Instead I have chosen to rewrite it's original mission objective from firing plagues at the earth, to record a message from me and then rise from it's resting place and head to earth's moon to send my message as a signal audible only to the crystal skull. When it hears my voice, it will wake up and finish what should have been finished during Taaffeite's reign.

And one more thing, Jasper, Olivine, you both are going to accompany to the planet earth. I know the crystal skull won't be enough to stop Soren, Smoky if he's still alive and Rose quartz not to mention this other unknown powerful moldavite gem that appeared. I never knew it would be this difficult and frustrating to destroy a five thousand year old rebellion and kill my traitor of a son. Jasper, you will command an armada of destroyers filled with soldiers with my son as backup on the assault on earth."

"Yes your grace, I will not disappoint you my grace, nor you Commander Olivine" Jasper spoke, her head lowered in a bow.

Jasper rose her face back up and watched Yellow Diamond press some buttons on a holo-key pad on the hand rest of her throne. On the screen jasper watched a smaller screen pop up. She recognized it as the machine of plagues resting on 'Neso,' one of the many moons of Neptune. The machine of plagues's legs came out and rose from the depression of the moon it was resting at. Jasper then turned to yellow diamond who began to speak into a holo voice transmitter that popped up in front of her twelve inches away from her.

"This is Yellow Diamond speaking, as the third member of the original four member group of the diamond authority, I order you to head towards the earth's moon and relay this message audible only to the crystal skull hidden in the mantle of that planet. This is your master speaking, you were created by our engineers and powered by the magic of our species, you are the second most powerful gem after myself. I order you to wake from your one thousand year old slumber to do my will for me until I have reached the earth. Destroy the earth, kill all life on that planet and see that you do all in your power to kill Commander Soren, kill commander Smoky, kill Rose quartz and kill the unknown moldavite gem. Do not fail me, and do my bidding and may the cry of your Gem roots be your reason for completing these tasks, NOW AWAKEN!"

The Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy

The Machine of plagues levitated off of the depression it was standing on in Neso, and gained more and distance from the surface of the moon and itself. When it reached a height of thirty kilometers, it fired off in the direction of the Earth. A trip that took two earth days to complete, when the machine of plagues reached the moon of earth, it landed in an area known as the sea of tranquility where it's legs drilled and rooted itself inside of the surface of the moon. The four radar dishes began to reassemble itself to become one super large radar dish. Downloading the message from yellow diamond it had received, the focus bulb of the radar dish lit up when the machine began to play Yellow diamond's message.

Friday

August 29, 2016, 7:30 [Evening]

Planet Earth

The last four days since Steven and Carlos lifted up the darkness off of the earth and sent collected the darkness in a pink bubble Steven made, Steven sent the darkness in away from the solar system, never to return for all time. The world and the nations of earth all took time to rebuild destroyed towns and cities, grieve for lost loved ones and friends and heads of governments were all interested in contacting the people who were responsible for saving not just their countries and kingdoms; but the whole planet itself.

No one knew Steven's name, or Carlos's or even the band they were a part of that have pledged their entire lives to fighting off gems that had long since became monster, corrupted due to time and seeking to take out their anger on a world they once fought for and have paid severely for after its liberation.

Inside of the crystal temple, Steven and Lapis were not around, instead they were out on a date. Carlos and Pearl too had the same idea and were nowhere to be found inside the temple or beach house. Amethyst stuck close to Soren who kept a watchful on the skies and space beyond the earth. Connie and Thomas's relationship was going smoothly. Connie shared with Thomas all that she had been through and continues to go through, but somehow Thomas always knew how to listen to her, and that did not go unappreciated.

Garnet helped Greg and Lion around the car wash and with grocery shopping, even though Lion carried most of the bags, Garnet was always up for helping Greg. Peridot found herself babysitting baby whistles more and more. The parents, Citrine and admiral Bells went out together as the crystal gems emissaries first to the nations on the western hemisphere.

Peridot was sitting on a couch inside of Admiral Bell's home with whistles in a baby carrier, whistles for the most part like to explore his telekinetic power by lifting furniture around the house and sometimes himself with Peridot included. But today was different, Whistles remained quiet since Peridot arrived to watch over him. In that time Peridot worked on compiling data she gathered on The Crystal Skull on a tablet Greg bought for her. She called it 'childishly earth' but her being on it 24/7 said otherwise.

All around the world storm clouds began to gather, extinct and dormant volcanoes began to release smoke into the atmosphere. But global thunder clouds forming over nations, extinct volcanoes resuming volcanic activity was not the most terrifying part. What was were news reports of claim of sounds that sounded like a beating heart and low howling being heard all around the world. Like the earth itself had come to life.

The continent plates all began to rumble and shake terribly. Peridot looked out the window in a panic and saw that the twilight sky had become black with an ominous red glow just above the horizon. Then, catching not just her but everyone in the world by surprise, Peridot heard the most terrible roar and growling come from under the the earth.

"Oh No! It's here! IT'S AWAKE!" Perdidot shouted all terrified, she nearly fell on her way out of Bell's home.

"Commander Soren if I may have a word with you"

"This is going to have to wait Peridot" replied the commander.

"Listen to Me! It's about The Crystal Skull, It's Awake!"

Commander Soren uncrossed his arms and balled up his hands into fists. There were fire in his eyes as he removed his pancho off of him.

"You knew, when were you going to-"

Before he could finish, there was an explosion so loud, it was like the earth had been cracked in half. A pillar of blood red light blasted out of ground as far away as Africa, rose past the horizon and reached as high as the Thermosphere. Accompanying this terrible cracking sound was loud growl that echoed and reverberated all across the globe.

Amethyst shook in her boots and clung to Soren's leg, Peridot and amethyst both saw true fear and concern in the eyes of the usually calm and stoic commander. "Perido! Can you contact everyone on that device of yours?"

"Yes, I have all of them as my fri-"

"Never midn that, tell them all to get her ASAP! I'm going to buy them some time, this a preview before mother gets here."

"Soren wait!" Amethyst interjected, she shapeshifted to make herself a little more taller and placed a kiss on Soren's lips. The commander did not seem phased by this and simply gave Amethyst a reassuring look before flying off to confront the crystal skull.

Next in Chapter 41, "Our Dying Planet"