Chapter 3: The Young Warrior from the Future
After being saved by this mysterious warrior in white, he was about to tell his tale of where he came from.
Steven: Did...Did you just say the future?
?: Yes. I come from 29 years into the future.
Steven: 29 years?
Garnet: Why is it that you're here and who were they?
?: I came to warn you about the end.
Pearl: The end?
?: Are you familiar about the Gara Droids?
Their eyes widened on where this was going.
Steven: This is there doing?
?: Yes. In 12 years on September 19th at 1:00 pm, the Gara Droids returned to Earth and invaded it.
Connie: But how can they with the lack of resources they had.
?: They didn't come alone this time. They are lead by their new leader, King Salamandas.
Steven: King Salamandas?
?: He calls himself the Demon King. The best way I can describe is that he's a monster, a tyrant and terrifyingly cold. He rules the Earth in fear. Every year to celebrate the day of his coming he would choose a random major city around the world and make his way to destroy it to expand his empire. Wiping out anything in his path and killing anyone he see's. Those that survive however he would either enslave or choose the strongest ones in his eyes to fight each other to the death in his tournament of death.
They all listened as their faces turned to fear. This Salamandas guy sounded terrifying.
?: Those who attacked you were two of his followers, Spinel and Skekung one of his reincarnations.
Bismuth: What do you mean reincarnations?
?: I heard that he has the ability to make his own warriors by dropping his blood into the ground and could grow them in seconds.
Steven: But what do you know about Spinel?
?: All I know is that she's probably the worst out his followers. Atleast in my eyes.
Steven: But do you know where she came from? I thought the Gara Droids shattered all the gems on Homeworld.
?: Sorry, but I don't know much about her backstory.
Amethyst: Whoa, hold up man. You keep talking about this Salamander guy ruling the Earth and how scary he is. But what about us?
Steven: That's right, where are we? Aren't we doing what we can to stop him?
The mysterious warrior looked down for a moment and back at him.
?: You tried...and you failed. He killed you.
Steven's eyes widened. Was this true, he's going to die in the future? Connie looked at him with a concerned face.
Steven: What?
?: Not just you though, you as well Amethyst.
Amethyst's eyes widened.
?: Also Pearl...
Pearl covered her mouth as Bismuth placed her hand on her shoulder.
?: Ruby...
Garnet looked at her hand where Ruby was and held onto it.
?: And Lapis Lazuli.
Lapis had a scarred look on her face.
?: The only members to survive were Connie, Bismuth, Peridot, Sapphire and Revenger.
Steven: I can't believe it...half of us get killed trying to save the Earth and fail? Even with my powers and Imperial Rainbow he still killed us?
?: Yes. He killed most of you before you could fuse and even your pink powers were no match for his power.
Lapis: He's that bad isn't he.
?: He is.
Connie: So then, where do you come in?
?: After that day, you and the others formed a resistance against him. I'm one of the top members and I've been training for years to fight him. But after many failed attempts to stop him and with all the lives lost, Peridot has been studying about time travel and with the technology I stole from his castle, she and Bismuth were able to build a time machine and had me go back in time to help you guys. But unfortunatly, Spinel and Skekung followed me to my base and chased me inside the time portal and...well you know the rest from here.
Revenger: A resistance you say?
Peridot: I studied about time travel?
Bismuth: And I helped build a time machine? Awesome.
Garnet: But why you though?
?: Having two of the same person in the same timeline and interact with one another would cause a parodox. Since I wasn't born at this time yet, I was chosen to go back to warn you.
Steven: So wait, have we met before I died?
?: No, but I've heard a lot about you.
Steven: But I've noticed your powers are gem like. Are you a gem?
?: I can't say.
Steven: What do you mean you can't say?
?: I'm only hear to tell you what you need to know.
Steven: But...
Connie: Steven, let's not force him to say things he doesn't want.
?: Thank you Connie. I just don't want to give too much away.
Peridot: Hold on, I'm trying to think about this Salamandas. You said he's the new leader, but I was a member of the Gara Droids too, but Gien and I never made somone like that and how can you coming here help us.
Pearl: That's right, we never seen or even heard about him.
Revenger: He said he is a the Demon King. So he's a demon then.
?: Your future self didn't know either Peridot. But six months ago in my timeline, I discovered something when infiltraiting his castle to free some slaves.
The warrior took out what appeared to be a metal disc from his pocket.
?: This contained a message that starteld my friends, I think you should see this.
He presses the button on it as the disc began to float and projected a pre recorded hologram of Gien.
Steven: Gien?
Gien: At long last you are born experiment SA-X. I am your creator Gien. I leave you this message from my trusted assistant. If you are seeing this, then it seems I have perished.. However I knew if I had died, I would have a back up plan for my subjects. That is you my creation. I made you to be the perfect warrior. Your purpose, is to help my Gara Droids rule the Earth and destroy Steven Universe and his Crystal Gem comrades. Stalk them. Tear them apart and make the Earth a new world for us.
The message ends as the hologram dissapears. While they had shocked looks on their faces, they turned to Peridot who looked even more surprised.
Steven: Peridot are you okay?
Peridot: ( whispers) It can't be...
Lapis: What?
Peridot: I think this Salamandas is actually experiment SA-X.
Steven: Experiment SA-X?
Revenger: Hold on. You knew about this?
Peridot: Well yeah but...
Revenger: And you never said this before!?
Steven and Connie blocked his path when he was coming to her.
Steven: Revenger easy.
Peridot: Yeah how was I supposed to know that the experiment was still on.
Connie: Still on?
Garnet: Please tell us.
Peridot: Okay...it was 500 years ago, back when I was the loyal apprentice to Gien. So you know how Homeworld set up Kindergardens to grow more gems on other planets right?
Amethyst: Uh yeah.
Peridot: Well due to rushed schedules we have to grow gems and how some of them come defected, we thought of an idea to use a planet to grow only one gem or warrior, but make them powerful beyond belief and near industructable. We called it experiment SA-X. But unlike the elites we made, this one was to be pure bio mechanical. The first subject we tested on the Planet Vampa, but the planet lacked organic life and the first subject died before it could be born. After doing research Gien found two planets that could complete it's creation, Earth and Homeworld. But because Earth already had the Cluster, he chose to experiment our own planet. Subject two was in the works and it did make to it's embryo stage. However, the nutrients it was sucking was tearing our planet apart. Earthquake began to occure and soon parts of our world was destroyed and drifted into space. The Diamonds were not happy at all and forced us to stop. Gien reluctantly ended the project and put experiment SA-X away where it would be killed. But it seems he never killed it and somehow kept it sustained and kept it a secret from everyone.
Bismuth: Hmm, even after death that uppercrust scrapheap still has tricks up his sleeve.
Peridot: Guys, I swear I didn't know he kept it alive nor did I know he was secretly continuing.
Lapis: Easy Peridot, we're not blaming you on anything.
?: She's right, it's not your fault. But now you all know. I came here with this message to give you all an idea on where to find Salamandas and kill him before he is born.
Peridot: Well, considering that the ship Gien used was destroyed and so was the Kindergarden lab, experiment SA-X must still be in Homeworld incubating.
Bismuth: But how do we get there?
?: That you'll have to figure out on your own. I wish you all luck and I'll be there to back you up when needed. In the mean time, I'm going to track down those two before they cause any more trouble. I won't let them ruin this mission.
The warrior turns around and was about to fly away.
Steven: Wait! You still haven't told us your name. Who are you?
The warrior turned back at Steven and stared at him for a moment.
?: I can't say my name, but everyone calls me Gray.
And so Gray flies off to look for Spinel and Skekung.
Steven: Gray...
Steven just watched as he flew away as Garnet approached him from behind.
Garnet: Come Steven, we need to get the others and discuss how we're going to do this. The future for Earth lies on our hands.
Steven nodded as they all head back to Little Homeworld to get the others. They left while Revenger stayed there for a moment looking up at the sky.
Revenger: He's hiding something. I know it.
Steven: Revenger come on!
Revenger looked back up at the sky. He wanted to find this Gray and know what he really is. But he'll do that later and caught up with the others.
Meanwhile
Somewhere deep in the forest, Skekung was at a lake with Spinel's gem. He placed the gem on the ground as went to the water. He scooped some water into his hands and splashed it on his burnt face as he grunted from the pain.
Skekung: Grrrr... damn that boy. How dare he scar Skekung. Next time I see him, I'll break his entire body to the point where he'll be begging me to kill him and I won't. Hehehe.
He then saw Spinel's gem glow as she regenerated.
Spinel: Uh...you know for once, I'm stuck without a punchline.
Skekung: Ah welcome back my friend. You're lucky to be alive.
Spinel: Yeah, I should have saw that technique of his coming. Ugh! What's with your face?
Skekung growled at her.
Skekung: Don't remind me. So what now?
Spinel: Isn't it obvious, we find Gray and kill him before he changes history. King Salamandas is relying on us. After all if he changes anything that effects him, you will cease to exist.
Skekung: AH! Yes, we must.
Skekung gets up.
Skekung: We must go and kill him for our king!
But then his stomach growls.
Skeung: Uh...after some lunch.
Skekung looked at a tree and grabbed the branch. He sniffed the leaves on it and took a bit on it. He munched on it for moment but spat it out.
Skekung: Uck, nasty. I need some meat.
Skekung leaves to go hunting leaving Spinel behind as she looks up in the sky.
Spinel: Don't worry your majesty. I won't fail you. I know you're counting on me. You and her always are.
To be continued...
Author's Note: That's it for this chapter. Sorry it took a bit, but I had to think through this chapter carefully. Sorry it it's short, but I'm trying to give the right pacing. Okay so this story does involve time travel, it might sound cliche but hey remember when people thought the movie was going to involve time travel or dimensional travel because the first teaser had different designs for the characters, but of course this was to avoid spoilers of their redesigns in the finale. If you liked this chapter, be sure to follow, favorite and review. As alwyas, thank you and until next time.