Chapter 5: Three Gems and a Stand, Act 1

The last year and a half, Connie had seen and heard a lot of bizarre things. 'Magic aliens' could only begin to describe them. Earlier that day, she had casually fought and defeated a giant monster, which was actually an alien who had been corrupted by their own leaders…

Suffice it to say, Connie had built up somewhat of a resistance towards these types of weird things. But even in the fantastical universe, she lived in, there were certain rules. Even if there was a broader spectrum of what was possible, there were still things that 'made sense' A leads to B, certain laws still existed.

One of those rules sad that what had just happened to them shouldn't have happened.

The two humans' powers hadn't lasted very long. It actually took less than a minute for them to dissipate entirely. It had been a weird feeling. The teen boy's illusions had been one thing, but the woman's… independence removal powers had been another thing completely. While being trapped in an illusion had been scary, the woman's power was terrifying. Her body had just stopped obeying her mind.

Monsters and alien soldiers had nothing on that feeling of total helplessness.

Right now, the three of them were heading back to Steven's house to tell the other gems. Where the group only an hour earlier would have been small-talking, making jokes and laughing, they now walked in silence. What could they talk about? This… entire thing had happened so fast and so unexpectedly.

Pearl seemed particularly troubled. Her eyes were glassy as if focused on something in another time or place. Hand over her mouth, muffled words could sometimes be heard. Connie didn't mean to listen to things she had no business hearing, but she could swear she heard the words 'Rose,' 'Steven,' and 'protect' more than once.

Connie decided against asking. She knew Pearl… had a complicated past when it came to Rose.

Once the arrived at the house, they were met by Amethyst. She was currently lying upside down on the sofa, trying to get the last drops of cooking oil out of the cans.

"Yoh, yohu aledy bach?" she greeted them lazily. However, once she saw the state her three friends were in, she quickly swallowed the entire can and stood back up. "Hey, something wrong?"

"I guess you could say that…" Connie began but was interrupted by Pearl.

"Humans!" she exclaimed. "Humans with powers!"

Amethyst tilted her head and frowned.

"What, like the breath-ripple thingy?"

"No, no… this was different, besides hamon doesn't even work on us…" Pearl sighed deeply. She walked over to the sofa, and crashed down in it, rubbing her temples. "Just… just get Garnet."

Amethyst didn't protest. She didn't even make any remarks or quips but did as Pearl asked her to. Her teammate was obviously worried and stressed over whatever had happened.

Another uncomfortable silence hanged itself over the room. Pearl sat on the sofa, head in her hands.

"So, um, what was this 'hamon' thing?" Connie tried to break the silence.

Pearl's entire body jerked at the sudden sound. She rubbed her eyes, before looking back at Connie.

"Excuse me, what did you say?"

"Well… you and Amethyst mentioned this thing… hamon?"

"Yeah," Steven joined her. "Amethyst said it gave humans powers, right? What is it?"

"Oh, that," Pearl said. She considered the question for a moment. "Hamon is… it was used in an old type of human martial arts. I'm not sure how it works, but it allows humans to channel energy through their bodies via a special breathing technique."

"And it gives humans powers?" Connie prodded further.

"Yes, in a way. It could produce some interesting effects, like water walking, slowing down aging and…" for a second, her eyes were distant again. "…other things. Though nothing like what those two strangers demonstrated."

"Can anyone learn hamon?" For a second, Connie had forgotten about that little world-changing event thirty minutes ago.

Pearl frowned.

"I'm not sure actually. There were only a few users, and I think they might have all died…"

"Who has died?" Amethyst announced her return, alongside Garnet. The purple gem was far from her usual self, fully serious. The prospect of someone dying made her visibly worried.

"No, no, no one has died. Or well, I mean, someone has died but not because of the humans with powers. You mentioned hamon earlier, and Connie got curious, so I told her a little about it, and she wondered if anyone could learn it, and I don't know, but I think all the users are dead, so that's why I said it…"

"Pearl!" Despite her deep voice, Garnet still managed to cut through the white gem's ramblings. The fusion was as calm as ever. "Calm down. Breathe."

"Why? We don't need to breathe, so why…?"

Garnet, who had walked up to the white gem, put her hands on Pearl's shoulders.

"Just do it."

Pearl took a deep breath. It seemed to help her calm down a little.

"There. Now, sit down." Pear sat down on the sofa. Garnet sat down to, on the other side of the table, right on the floor. She made a gesture for the others to join them. "Now, tell me what happened. From the beginning."

xxXXxx

During her years on Earth, Garnet had seen many, many strange things. Not all that unexpected really. Her own conception was extraordinary. Surely, she was destined to meet many other such extraordinary happenings.

Throughout this peculiar journey of hers, she had become very good at hiding her emotions, such as shock or surprise. She had, as Greg put it, mastered the 'poker face.'

This skill had become all the more important after Rose… gave up her form. Now, the responsibility of leader rested on her shoulders. She needed to be strong. Not just as a fighter, that was the easy part. Garnet could trade blows with practically an unfused gem there was. Aside from the diamonds, of course.

No, fighting wasn't the hard part. But to always be strong, to never give up, never blinking in the face of danger; that was the hard part. That's why she wore the visor. The eye is the window to the soul, even for a gem. So, if even one part of her soul felt fear, her eyes would show it. And if her eyes showed it, her teammates could see it. And if they could see it, how then would she give them hope, the hope they needed to continue the fight?

If her teammates could see her soul now, they would see worry. Worry and alarm.

Some might say Pearl was overreacting. After all, no one had gotten hurt, and even then, the two human muggers seemed harmless enough. Or so it may seem on the surface. But if one dug deeper, looked at the implications… what did one find then?

Never once had the Crystal Gems encountered any human with powers like these. Hamon had indeed been a lot different from what Steven, Connie, and Pearl were describing, and none of Earth's monsters had displayed powers similar to this either. This raised several questions.

What were these powers? Where did they come from? How long had they been around? How many were there? And perhaps the most important one… why did they show up here now?

Garnet usually didn't ask many questions. She was the one who gave the answers. That's what her future vision was for. But now she had no answers. Her powers showed her nothing but vague images that lacked all form of coherence; the magic equivalent of static.

"…once the effect expired, we made out way back here, and here we are." Pearl finished up her retelling of the events.

They all sat quietly for a moment, processing the new information.

"So, G-Squad," Amethyst said after a while. "You know what's going on?"

"No." There was no reason to lie. It would just end up badly. She didn't need future vision to tell her that.

"Wha- really?" Amethyst did her best to hide her shock. "Not a single idea? Not one?"

"No," Garnet said once again. She stood back up. One by one, she looked at the people gathered at the coffee table. One of the downsides of the visor was that she had to turn her head overtime she wanted to signify her shifting attention.

"I don't know what's going on, who or what those people were. There's just too little information to work with. For now, the best we can do is to keep extra watch over the city, in case any more of these powered humans show up."

All around the table nodded in silence. Garnet knew the plan was disappointing, amounting to little else but to sit around and wait for something to happen. She knew because she felt exactly the same. But what else could they do? They had nothing to go on, no leads or information to work with. She had considered many other options and looked down the river of time. None of them ended up anywhere useful.

She turned to walk away. She had to stay strong, for their sake.

"I'm going out right now. Steven, Connie." She turned back to the two kids. "You should go tell Peridot and Lapis. We could make use of two pairs of extra eyes. Pearl, Amethyst, you're with me."

Garnet sometimes asked herself 'what would Rose do?' when she was unsure of what to do. Usually, it would help her by putting her into the mindset of another person. That way, you consider angles you wouldn't normally. You can come up with solutions you wouldn't normally. It didn't mean she literally wondered what Rose would do. Rather, what ways another person might go about solving a problem.

This time, however, the question was more genuine. Garnet did wonder what Rose would really do. How would a real leader handle this mess?

xxXXxx

'What would Rose do?' asked the small voice in Pearl's head once again. For once, the others stayed silent. They really didn't have any other answers to give. This whole situation was just so… bizarre! Nothing the gems had ever faced before came close.

Now, the voices in Pearl's head were not separate entities or personalities. They were just her mind exploring different aspects of situations, given distinct voices. These could be 'the pessimist,' which explored the worst cases scenarios. 'The optimist' explored the best case scenarios.

The 'Rose' voice was built on Pearl's experience of Rose. It was a compendium of how Rose thought and acted. She had spent six thousand years observing Rose; she figured she had the best understanding of how her old leader thought… aside from when it came to a few things.

If the 'Rose' voice didn't know what to do, it was because Pearl's mind lacked the experience to base it on. Of course, it wasn't actually Rose making any decisions; it was Pearl. So saying the 'Rose' voice didn't know what to do was another way of saying Pearl didn't know what to do.

Oh, how Pearl wished she had Garnet's strength. She always knew what to do, and never hesitated. Even Amethyst had the same type of mental strength, Even if she didn't always do the right thing, she kept her eyes forward, and she too never hesitated to act on what she believed was right.

She let out a deep sigh. She tried some more of that breathing thing. It was actually surprisingly effective at calming her nerves. Maybe that was why humans did it so much?

"So… you sure you don't know what's going on?" Amethyst asked in her quiet voice. The three of them were making their way towards the town. The sun had lowered in the sky, though it had yet to fully set. Pearl had lost track of time but guessed it was around four o' clock. "Or did you just not want to talk about the… human-monsters around Steven and Connie?"

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

Garnet abruptly stopped. Both Pearl and Amethyst were unprepared for this and bumped into her in a way that probably would look very comedic to an onlooker.

"I don't know what's going on," Garnet said, her back still turned to them. There was a slight edge to her words. "I… I have no idea. We've never seen anything like it before and my future vision is not telling me anything."

She finally turned around. Her visor was off, three eyes meeting her friends' four. In them, they saw the same uncertainty they themselves felt. However, there was something else… determination. A cold, yet hot determination burned like a fire within her. This let the two other Crystal Gems that, no matter what this new threat may be, they would stand against it. They had faced overwhelming odds in the past. They can do it again.

Or at least, that's what Pearl took away from it. She wasn't sure what Amethyst thought.

"However, I know that this is not because of the 'human-monsters.'" With a flick of her fingers, she summoned a new visor. "They're all dead, and that human promised to destroy all of those masks. No, it can't be them, and I don't want Steven to get nightmares."

Pearl and Amethyst nodded in unison; that made sense. The poor boy had enough to worry about without bringing up past threats that were no longer relevant.

"The only thing we can do now is to wait and see," Garnet continued. "By the looks of it, the two humans you encountered were not organized. They didn't expect anyone to be able to break their powers…"

"…therefore, it's safe to assume these powers aren't very common," Pearl continued.

"Maybe it's a one-time thing?" Amethyst suggested. "What if these humans are, like, unique or something? Or what if it's a thing some humans just have, but it's really rare, and that's why we haven't seen it before? Maybe we're overreacting?"

Now wasn't that an interesting idea.

Perhaps they were overreacting. Just because they hadn't seen something before didn't mean it wasn't natural. After all, they hadn't learned about the 'human-monsters' until thousands of years after they first came to Earth. Why couldn't this be any different? Simply something unknown to them, yet completely natural… even if it wasn't benevolent in nature.

Garnet stood quietly for a moment, before bringing her right hand, the one with Sapphire's gem on it, up to her face. Even through the visor, it was clear she was starring at the gemstone.

"No," she finally said. She turned her hand, examining her fingernails. "I think we can say this wasn't an isolated incident." Except Garnet didn't have any nails.

"Why, did you see something in the future?" Amethyst asked. She hadn't noticed yet…

"Nope," Garnet said. "She showed her hand to the purple gem. "I'm saying that because we are currently under attack."

Author's Note

Eh? Nani!? I-impossible!

Fun Fact: I changed POV for the first part of this chapter like four-five times. Garnet, Steven, Pearl, back to Garnet, and then finally settling on Connie. I was not too keen on using Connie and Pearl for this chapter at first, as I have already used them heavily in Crazy, Noisy Beach Town, and I wanted to give the spotlight to another character. Same deal with Jotaro and Joske in the last chapter. It felt a little like I was neglecting Okuyasu and Koichi.

On another note, Pear breathing to calm her nerves and the line about 'understanding why humans do it so much' are references to a fic called 'The Connie Maheswaran Fanclub' by CoreyWW over on Archive of Our Own. Specifically, it's to Chapter 11.

You may have noticed I make a lot of references in this story. Not too unique for me, but I do go out of my way a little more in this story in particular. Aside from music (which is to be expected when making anything JoJo) I make homages to different fanfiction that have inspired me. Sometimes, they are just as a big reason for this story's existing as the original series. I see it as a 'thank you' to all those that have inspired me to write this fanfic, by showing me it was possible and not just a waste of time.

Chapter, when? I don't' know. Writing's been going a bit slower now. Maybe Monday? Or Tuesday, to celebrate my birthday.

But until then, take care of the planet Earth. And remember that anything can happen in space.