The test subjects of the Monster Division awoke to the loud crash of the automated metal doors opening. Five nondescript men walked into the room, pistols visible in the holsters in their belts. "Rise and shine, Monsters," one of them said.
The Monsters got out of their beds slovenly and automatically, resignation written on their faces. Time for another day of torture. Steven, the new test subject, rubbed his drowsy eyes, not sure what was happening. One of the armed men went behind Steven and poked the boy's back with the barrel of his gun.
Steven's eyes widened when he realized what was happening. He looked around until he saw Vanessa, Millaarc, and Elsa being handcuffed. He remembered what they talked about last night and figured that the tests were starting. He raised his hands in surrender and got off his bed. He was soon handcuffed and lined up behind Elsa at the back of the line.
Steven so sorely wanted to ask her about what's going to happen, but one look at the armed officers with their guns at them dissuaded him.
The guards wordlessly led the group out the door into the hallway. After a few agonizing minutes, they had reached a fork in the hallway. The guard in the back grabbed Steven's shoulder harshly and stopped him from following the rest. As Steven looked up at the guard in fear, the officer wordlessly led the boy down the left hallway with his gun pointed at his back. Steven gingerly walked away from the rest of the group.
Steven was eventually led down to what appeared to be a doctor's office like the ones he saw in the hospital that Connie's mom worked at. The doctor was a man who looked like he was nearing his forties, and had graying brown hair.
The room had a medical examination bed on the wall, along with a blood-drawing chair on the opposite wall. The squinty-eyed doctor looked down at Steven with a smile on his face. Steven's back stifled when the doctor looked at him like he was a new toy to break.
"Subject 2418, I'm going to need you to sit in that chair over there. If you try any funny business, the nice man over there will take care of you. Understand?" The doctor asked in a calm tone.
Steven gulped while nodding when the doctor finished. Steven didn't quite like being treated like he was just a number. He briefly wondered if this was how Peridot, a small, green gem he became friends with, felt like when she reported to Yellow Diamond.
The young boy was thinking about resisting and trying to make a break for it, but he thought of the girls who were surely being experimented on. 'What if they punish those three after I escaped!? I can't let that happen! But then, how will I make my escape?' Steven's thoughts whirled a million miles an hour as he sat down on the chair, trying to calm down so he could plan his escape.
Then the doctor turned around, the grin on his face wider than before. He held a large, empty syringe in hand. "Time for some blood work," the doctor said. Steven could only gulp in fear as he got closer.
XXXX
Hibiki, Chris, and the strange women were flying in a helicopter and were now headed towards the submarine that SONG used for their headquarters. The strange women asked questions about what Hibiki meant by "being responsible for the moon having a ring." However, it looked like one of them didn't believe the two humans.
"You can't expect us to believe that some woman planned to blow up the moon so she can talk to her God and that you managed to stop her. It sounds like something out of a cartoon Steven and Connie would watch!" Pearl said dismissively. Chris's eyes twitched in annoyance.
The two of them have been trying to convince the women that they were telling the truth for the last thirty minutes. Pearl, the pale one, did not believe a word they said. Amethyst barely paid attention, preferring to look down at the forest under them. And the tall, red-one, Garnet, sat silently and stared at the two girls in contemplation.
As they spoke, SONG's personnel were using a helicopter to airlift the spacecraft that the strange women had arrived in. With Pearl's careful instruction, they made sure that no piece was left behind. She said that she intended to repair it later.
"Well then, how would you explain the fucking moon being shattered!?" Chris responded to Pearl, the irritation in her voice apparent.
Pearl gasped at Chris's language, but before Pearl could reprimand the girl, Hibiki nervously amended with Pearl by saying, "W-we have videos of the Kadingir being fired, and it's still standing! We could show it to you!" Hibiki chimed in, trying to break the argument the two were having while waving her hands in front of her face. Before the two arguers could react, the helicopter arrived at its destination.
The helicopter began lowering near the docks of the pacific ocean. Soon, a submarine was visible to the group, floating in the water. The helicopter soon began lowering into the helipad on top of the submarine. After a few minutes, the helipad soon began shifting into the submarine, bringing the group inside it.
After the helicopter had landed, the group disembarked from the aircraft onto the helipad and were greeted by a tall, muscular man with wild red hair and a goatee. He nodded his head to the two girls. "Hibiki-kun, Chris-kun, I suppose these are the women that appeared at the crash-site?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yes, Shisou! They looked so distressed, so I thought we should help them!" Hibiki answered with a grin on his face.
The man sighed at Hibiki's enthusiasm but gently patted the young girl's head with a smile on his face. The man then turned at the three alien women with an easy-going grin on his face. "My name is Genjuro Kazanari, the commander of SONG, the Squad of Nexus Guardians. If you can follow me, I'm sure that we can find where your charge is." He asked of them before he turned around and began walking down the hallway towards the bridge.
Amethyst and Pearl looked up towards Garnet, to which she nodded at the two other Gems, and began following Genjuro. Amethyst just shrugged carelessly at Garnet's nod and followed after them, with her arms behind her head. Meanwhile, Pearl looked more hesitant but followed suit anyhow.
After a few minutes of walking down the submarine's hallways, with the occasional stare from the crewmates, the group eventually made their way into the bridge of the submarine. It was a big room filled with men and women typing away on their computers while there was one big screen at the front of the room.
"Huh, you have pretty cool toys here," Amethyst mused while looking around the computers housed. She took in everything around her, trying to occupy the boredom she felt.
Pearl nodded at Amethyst's statement while she put her hand under her chin. "I haven't seen humans use this level of technology before…" She mumbled to herself. Between this submarine and the computers on it, the technology SONG possessed was rather advanced for a human group.
The man who reported the crash readings, Fujitaka Sakuya, turned around on his seat to look at the people entering the bridge. His eyes widened a bit at the sight of the three aliens but kept his mouth shut about that after a moment of consideration.
"Commander, we have a report from the First Division. The Gjallarhorn relic activated at approximately the same time as the crash landing," Fujitaka reported to Genjuro.
Genjuro nodded while putting his hand under his chin in thought. He turned to the three Gems, and asked, "If I may ask, what was the last thing you remember?"
Garnet stepped in front of the other two women and looked at Genjuro behind her visors. "We were searching in space and had just found Steven in our Roaming Eye, but before we could get him inside, there was a bright green flash. We then reformed at the hands of your two subordinates." She answered stoically.
"I see. That does coincide with the reports of nearby residents. They said that they saw a green flash in the sky before feeling a tremor caused by the crash landing. Add that with the activation of the Gjallarhorn relic at the same time, we can safely conclude that the relic was responsible for your arrival here." Genjuro concluded while putting his fist in his palm. The three gems looked at the commander, a mixture of shock and contemplation on their faces.
"So what does this "Gjallarhorn" relic do anyway?" Amethyst asked with her arms crossed under her gemstone. While she wasn't as skeptical as Pearl of the two human girls having saved the planet, she does wonder if the relic was just a piece of Gem tech that the humans got control over and then named it something weird.
A blue-haired woman, Tomosoto Aoi, rolled around in her chair. "We… aren't entirely sure, to be honest. One of our previous scientists, Ryoko Sakurai, tried to activate it to no avail over many years before she passed away. This is the first time it has been activated in our records," She answered with a hint of sheepishness on her face. She quickly turned back to her computer and brought up the relic in question onto the big screen in front.
Pearl looked at the relic in careful analysis, but then sighed, shaking her head, "I don't recognize that as Gem technology… but then what is it?" She wondered aloud.
Garnet looked at the relic in question, then looked at Tomosoto. "We would like to see a map of the Earth please." She said to the blue-haired woman, who nodded at the request. In a few short minutes, a world map had appeared on the screen. Pearl and Amethyst's eyes widened when they saw the screen.
"What is this!? The map looks completely different!" Pearl asked while yelling, not believing what was on the screen.
With a curious look on her face, while tilting her head slightly, Hibiki asked the pale woman, "What do you mean? The world has always looked like this."
Pearl looked at the girl with her eyes widened. "What do you mean 'always'!? The map should look like this!" Soon the gem on her forehead produced a holographic map of her own that was quite different from the one that was on the screen.
"What the- why are there pieces of Africa and Russia missing!? And Australia doesn't have a sea that divides it! What's going on here!?" Chris demanded answers from the three women.
Garnet then answered her question. "It seems like my suspicions were correct." Everyone looked at Garnet, questioning what she had to say. "It seems like we are on a parallel Earth."
Everyone looked at the maroon woman in shock, not quite believing the woman. Pearl, in disbelief, muttered out a question, "G-Garnet, are you sure? That seems a little far fetched, isn't it?"
Amethyst rubbed the back of her head in thought. "I don't know P. Remember the future Stevens we saw? If time travel is possible, then I don't see why traveling to parallel worlds would be different."
Pearl looked like she wanted to refute that, but after thinking it over for a moment, conceded to Amethyst's point. "Perhaps…" she began.
"Wait, time travel!?" Hibiki interrupted with an excited expression. "You mean that's possible?" She was suddenly Amethyst's face.
"Yeah…. Honestly, I'm still not entirely sure what happened. One moment we were getting the hourglass that lets time travel happen, the next-" Amethyst tried to explain before Pearl covered her mouth.
"Amethyst now's not the time." Pearl chastised the purple gem while shivering at the memory. Hibiki looked down, her feet kicking the ground in disappointment, while Chris just rolled her eyes at her. Pearl looked up at Garnet. "But that still doesn't explain where Steven is! If we're here, then surely Steven is, correct!?"
Fujitaka raised his hand to get everyone's attention, "If I may, remember that we only have one half of the Gjallarhorn relic. Your charge might have landed near wherever the other half is."
Pearl and Amethyst looked hopeful at the answer, with Amethyst asking, "So where is the other half!?" At that Fujitaka scratched the side of his cheek out of nervousness.
"They don't know where the other half of the Gjallarhorn relic is," Garnet answered for the bridge member while looking down at the floor. Her body was tense, and fear appeared on her face for the first time. Pearl and Amethyst's faces then turned into disappointment and more importantly, worry for Steven's safety.
Genjuro looked at the Gems with sympathy. "I'm sorry that your charge is missing. But know that we will do everything in our power to find Steven. You have my word!" Genjuro answered with a determined look on his face.
Pearl looked at his face and gave a weak smile. "Thank you for your help, but we can't just sit here and do nothing! I have to get back to the ship and repair it. It will help us look for Steven much faster!" Genjuro nodded at Pearl's request and had a crewmate lead the woman to where the spacecraft was being held. Garnet followed after Pearl to assist the woman in the repair. However, Amethyst stayed on the bridge.
"Huh, you're not going with them, Amethyst-chan?" Hibiki asked the purple woman.
"Nah, I'm not that good with that technology stuff. And I don't think that it's a good idea for me to go out looking for Steven by myself if Gems were never on this Earth. Ehehe…" Amethyst replied with a wave of her hand and a nervous chuckle. Hibiki looked at Chris briefly, turned back, and smiled at the purple gem.
"Hey, why don't you come to eat dinner with us in the cafeteria?" Hibiki invited her with a smile on her face. Amethyst eyes widened a bit before grinning.
"Yeah, sure! I'm starving!" Amethyst answered while rubbing her stomach for emphasis.
"Great! Just let me call Miku!" Hibiki said with a smile on her face before taking her phone out and dialed a number. "Hey, Miku, can you come over to SONG headquarters and have dinner with me, Chris, and a new friend? Oh, you were about to start making dinner!? Oh, I'm so sorry about that!"
While Hibiki was talking on the phone, Amethyst turned to the other white-haired girl, and muttered: "So is this 'Miku' Hibiki's girlfriend or something?"
Chris put the palm of her hand onto her face, her eyes twitching in annoyance. "Not officially, but they are so obviously crushing on each other. It's so annoying to see them acting all lovey-dovey without them realizing it." She muttered. Amethyst made a deadpan expression at the explanation.
"Really!? Thank you so much!", Oblivious to the conversation going on behind her, Hibiki hung up with a smile on her face. "She'll be here in twenty minutes!" She looked at the faces of Chris and Amethyst with confusion. "Huh? What's wrong?" She asked.
"Nothing, you idiot. Now let's get going to the cafeteria." Chris said at the other girl before walking towards the cafeteria. Amethyst shrugged, and Hibiki chuckled lightly. The alien then followed suit and walked after the two humans.
XXXX
Steven was lying in the prison cell, dead tired from the tests he went through today. After they had drawn some of his blood with the syringe, they attached electrodes to his body and shocked him for hours on end until he almost passed out. It was so much more painful than the tingling sensation of the gem destabilizer prison cells back on the space hand Jasper and Peridot flew.
The worst part was that the scientist just had a playful smile on his face the whole time. It was as if the scientist was a little kid with a magnifying glass, using the sun's rays to kill the ants just to see what would happen, and Steven was the ant. While Steven usually hesitated to use the word, he could safely say that he hated that look.
Thankfully, his healing spit had gone a long way to dull his pain. The burnt skin and shaking feeling he got from the electric shocks were gone now, leaving only some goosebumps. As he gathered himself, he sat on his bed, waiting for the Monsters to come back. He hoped they were alright.
Just then, the Monsters entered the room, with guards behind them prodding them into the room. At first, Steven was happy until he saw the injuries that they had sustained. While Vanessa looked like she got off relatively unscathed, albeit, with a slight limp, Millaarc and Elsa weren't so lucky.
Elsa was currently in a wheelchair being pushed by a scientist. She had bandages bound tightly around her pelvis region. She was soon picked up and put on her bed.
Millaarc seemed to have the worst of it though. She had bandages around her eyes, bloody marks visible from the outside. The guards roughly shoved Millaarc forward, making her trip over her own feet.
When all the subjects were on the beds, the guards left without a word. After they left, without thinking, Steven immediately jumped off his bed to check up on the girls. "What did they do to you!?" He asked in both fear and worry for them.
Vanessa and Elsa looked at him in shock, while Millaarc's ears twitched at his voice. In disbelief, Vanessa asked, "Wait, how are you standing up so easily so fast!? It couldn't be that long since your experiment!"
"Huh? Oh, right you don't know… I can heal! I can help you!" Steven said while walking up to Millaarc's bed.
"Brat, you have to be shitting me. There's no way that the damn scientists would just stick you in here if you had that!" Millaarc yelled out to the young boy while turning her head towards the kid's voice.
"I really can! I'll do it right now!" Steven huffed out while spitting saliva onto his hand.
"Wait, did I just hear you spit!? You fucking brat, if you get that stuff anywhere near me, I will fucking-" Millaarc swore at the kid, who ignored her threats while he put his palm gently onto Millaarc's cheek. Then, she felt a rush of relief. Whereas before, it felt like her eyes were on fire, it felt like someone had doused that flame with cool water. She shivered briefly at the feeling and then growled out at the kid.
"Goddamnit brat! I told you to not-" Millaarc said while getting up from her bed unconsciously, blinded by anger. After a few moments, she realized what happened. "Holy shit, that worked!?" She slowly brought her hand up to her eyes and took the bandages off her face.
The blood pouring from her eyes now stopped. Her previously yellow irises now had red iris in it as well. After looking around a bit to make sure that it wasn't a dream, she looked down at Steven. After a moment, she sighed and scratched her cheek. "Thanks, kid. Sorry for the stuff I said before." Millaarc apologized while looking the other way.
With a wide grin on his face, Steven just said, "No prob!" before walking over to Vanessa and Elsa, healing both of them with his spit. Elsa was able to get off her bed and take off the bandages around her pelvis. She now had a metal hole at the base of her back.
After a few minutes of experimenting moving their bodies, the Monsters turned to look at Steven with questions in their heads.
Elsa asked first. "Steven, when did you learn that you could heal? A few hours ago?"
Steven scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I learned that about a few months ago…"
Millaarc jumped up from her bed and pointed her finger at Steven, and yelled "Wait, a few months ago!? Then why didn't you use that to heal us last night?"
Steven cringed at the accusation, especially since he didn't have a good explanation. "I'll be honest, I forget I can do that most of the time," he answered with a self-deprecating laugh.
Vanessa looked at the ground with a quizzical look on her face, cupping her chin. After a few moments, she asked "You've had your healing abilities for a few months, yet the Illuminati only kidnapped you recently, correct? So, you have this ability naturally." She then looked back up at Steven with a calculating look on her eye, making Steven shiver a bit. "Just what are you, Steven Universe?"
The three Monsters stared at Steven, making him sweat a bit. With a sigh, he lifted his shirt, revealing a rose quartz gem where his navel was supposed to be. "I'm part alien from my mom's side," He answered with a small smile on his face.
"Oh yeah, and I'm Count Dracula," Millaarc replied while rolling her eyes and crossing her arms. "You'll have to come up with something better than that."
"Hey, if alchemists can exist, why can't aliens?" Steven pointed out.
"What kind of stupid reasoning is that?!" Millaarc argued back.
"Regardless of its origins," Elsa interjected. "I believe that Steven's ability is certainly a boon."
"Certainly! And it appears that it has a second use as well!" Vanessa stated while putting a fist into her hand. When the other three prisoners looked at her, Vanessa's smile grew. She brought her hand out, palms, and fingers towards the ceiling. Her fingers then opened and soon produced a small fire from the openings. Vanessa grinned triumphantly at their astounded faces, then answered their unstated question with, "I have a plan to escape this hellhole…"