Steven didn't want to break off their hug, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the gems returned. He wanted to talk to Peridot before they had a chance to talk him out of it. "Room? I want to go to the basement. The real basement."
Both boys rose to their feet as a pink crystal vein appeared. "Thank you!" Steven grabbed Twoie's hand and dragged him over to the vein.
"Steven." The boy turned to look at his older self. "Remember that Peridot is going to be scared of us. I'll protect you if anything goes wrong, but all you need to do is be yourself."
That calmed Steven's nerves a bit. "Right! I'll put my heart out on the line." Twoie smiled lightly at the reference. The two brothers slid down the vein into the Burning room. Normally, this ride would be fun for him, but after Twoie's outburst, he couldn't bring himself to enjoy it.
The moment they landed in the burning room, Steven scanned all of the floating bubbles for the green triangle he knew was Peridot. "Hmm. There we go!" He floated up and grabbed it, waiting until he was standing on the ground again to pop it.
The gem shined and rose into the air the second it was freed. Peridot reemerged with a shout, waving her arm around as though she was wearing her limb enhancers. "-cluster, you insufferable half-formed crater mega clods!" She froze as she noticed Steven's presence. She whipped around in fear as she noticed Twoie as well.
"Oh my gosh. You're so cute!" Steven's worries faded from his mind. She was so small! He walked around her, smushing his cheeks in awe.
Peridot inspected herself. "My limb enhancers! Where are my limb enhancers?!" Twoie smiled weakly. This moment was pretty cute. "Aww! You're like, an angry little slice of pie!"
That offended her even more. "Stop talking! I demand to know where this place is and where are my-" She finally noticed the multitude of bubbled gems above her. "Oh, my stars… You're going to harvest me?!"
Okay, it's not cute anymore. "Peridot, wait." Twoie held his hands up in a placating way. "We're not going to harvest-" Steven made the error of getting to close to her. She smacked him in the face.
"Oww!" He rubbed his cheek. "That hurt!"
Peridot looked at her hands in amazement. "It did?" Twoie watched the exchange go back and forth.
"Yeah, a lot." She went to smack him again. This time Twoie intervened.
"That's enough, Peri. You don't need to keep hitting him." He gently pulled her away from his little brother. She started beating her hands against his stomach instead. It didn't hurt, so Twoie felt content to let her continue.
"Feel my unbridled rage!" He waited another couple of seconds. "You done?" She paused, then asked, "That doesn't hurt?"
He shook his head. "No, it just seems like it makes you feel better. You can keep going if you need to."
Peridot bristled in anger and continued smacking him. "You smashed me into a limbless cloud, trapped me in a bubble dungeon, and you called me cute!"
Steven threw his hands up in exasperation. "We didn't poof you; we freed you!" Peridot retreated to curl up in a sitting position on the floor. She regarded them with calculating eyes. "Why would you make such a miscalculation?"
Steven frowned and took a step forward. "Back at the warp pad. What were you trying to say? What do you know?"
Peridot uncurled slightly. "What do I know? Everything there is to know about the Cluster you pebble!" Steven approached her again, looking at her questioningly. "The Cluster?"
"My mission. The reason why I'm on this sad rock in the first place!" She exclaimed. "I was to check progress on the Cluster!" She kept waving her arms around as she talked. "Just in-and-out before it hatches. I wasn't supposed to get stuck here! But now, it's going to emerge, and nothing can stop it, and we'll all get shattered!" She freaked out, thinking about how wrong this whole mission went.
"Okay, wait. Slow down! Now, from the top!" Steven sat down in front of her. Twoie walked over and sat down as well, subtly blocking the temple door. "Emerging. Hatching. Clusters."
"You wanna know?"
"Yes." He scooted closer.
"You really wanna know?"
"Yes!" Peridot leaned in. Twoie reacted, catching her wrist before she could slap Steven. She growled and headbutted Twoie instead. "Ow!" He clutched at his nose. She didn't hit him hard enough to bleed, but it stung. "Hey, wait!" Steven called out after her.
Peridot ran out of the temple. "Freedom is mine!" Her triumph was short-lived. The Gems stared at her in shock and horror. Twoie and Steven appeared from the temple and noticed they were back. "Oh, no." Twoie quickly grabbed Peridot around the shoulders and pulled her back.
The Gems were furious. They swiftly shifted into battle stances and summoned their weapons. "Get her!"
Peridot screamed as they charged her. Twoie quickly encased them in a bubble, making the gems pause. "What are you doing?" Pearl spat. She pointed her spear at him. "You let her go, didn't you! You traitor!"
Steven flinched. "He's not a traitor! He's trying to help us!" Twoie shook his head; it was futile to argue with them.
He backed up, so the bubble was directly touching the temple door. "Peridot. The second the door behind us opens, I want you to run inside. Steven or I will come to get you once they've calmed down, okay?"
Garnet stepped forward. "Twoie, if you help her escape, then we'll have no choice but to deem you as a threat to Steven's safety and an enemy of the Crystal Gems." Pearl and Amethyst nodded as they prepared to attack from beside her.
Steven clung to Twoie's side. He couldn't understand why the gems were acting so aggresively. "Guys, why are you acting like this?! Just let us explain!"
Peridot nodded in fear. She scooted to the edge of the bubble and waited with bated breath as Twoie stuck three fingers out.
3. The pink gem lit up on the door. The gems noticed Twoie's hand signals.
2. The door opened up to Rose's room. Garnet clenched her fists in anger.
1. The bubbled dropped. Garnet lunged.
Peridot ran into the room, just in time for Twoie to raise his shield to block Garnet's punch. The door closed. Amethyst used her whip to pull Steven to her. "Amethyst, wait! You guys, you're gonna hurt him!"
Pearl ignored Steven as she stepped forward. "You are protecting her! You have betrayed the Crystal Gems." Amethyst pushed Steven behind her and moved into a protective stance. Twoie dismissed his shield, holding his hands up in surrender.
"Look, I know this looks bad, but Steven needed to be the one to talk to Peridot. She never would've trusted you guys enough to tell you about the Cluster without him." Twoie was hoping that he could de-escalate the situation, but it seemed like the new info only made the gems angrier.
Garnet stepped closer. "And what is the Cluster? No more withholding information about Homeworld!"
Twoie rubbed his arm in discomfort. "A geo-weapon created by Yellow Diamond to destroy the earth…"
If he thought the gems were mad before, they were incensed now. "You neglected to tell us about a geo-weapon?" Twoie flinched. Garnet swung an arm out to the side. "That's it! You are telling us everything! Now!" Steven managed to sneak far enough away from Amethyst and ran in front of Twoie.
"You're overreacting! Twoie is one of us! Right now, you're the one's betraying him!" He gestured to Twoie with one arm and held the other up to his chest.
That's when Pearl noticed a dark splotch on his outstretched arm. "Steven! Who did that to you?"
He paused. "What?" Pearl rushed over to inspect his arm. There was a large bruise on it. It stung when she touched it. "Ow! I didn't even notice. That must've happened by accident when Twoie was mad."
Pearl's pupils shrank. Garnet tensed. Amethyst covered her mouth with her hand. "Twoie hurt you?" Garnet whispered.
Steven realized how it sounded. "N-no! Wait-!" It was too late. Pearl picked him up and jumped out of the way as Amethyst flung her whip at Twoie.
"I actually believed in you!" Once it wrapped around him, she used her strength to hurl him through the front door. "But not anymore!"
"Amethyst! What are you doing?!" Steven cried out. He wriggled out of Pearl's hold and ran out to the porch, looking over the guard rail. Twoie groaned in pain as he sat up in a crater of sand.
Amethyst wrapped Steven in a whip, tying it to the rail. "Sorry dude. This is for your own good. I don't want you running in front of him again." Steven struggled in the whip's hold as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl jumped off the porch.
"No, wait! Don't do this!" Steven screamed as he struggled to get the whip off. He could only watch helplessly as they landed with their weapons aimed at Twoie.
The young man stared at the past versions of his family. His heart shattered as he saw the anger in their gazes. "Garnet… Pearl… Amethyst… Please…"
"I don't care who you are." Garnet's face twisted in rage. Twoie barely raised a bubble in time to block Garnet's rocket arms. It popped under the force.
"You do not hurt Steven!" The young man cried out as Garnet punched him in the stomach. He doubled over, leaving him open for an attack. Pearl launched herself forward, sweeping her spear under his legs. As Twoie fell backward, Amethyst wrapped him in her whip again and spun, releasing him after she'd built enough momentum to fling him against the cliff. He slammed into the cliffside, landing heavily on his hands and knees. His head was throbbing from the impact.
The Crystal Gems stalked forward. "Where is the geo-weapon?" Garnet demanded.
"It's in the earth's core, several thousand feet under the barn! You can't reach it without Peridot's help!" Twoie wrapped an arm around his stomach. He could feel the bruises forming already. Pearl and Amethyst stood behind Garnet, weapons at the ready.
"You've been here all this time and never thought to mention that?" The leader continued her interrogation. Twoie stood up. That was it! He was sick of the gems acting like he was the bad guy.
"I didn't mention it because you would've overreacted!" He shouted at them in anger. "You were already fighting with each other over Pearl's actions with the tower, and you were already stressing out about Peridot! I wasn't going to add to that by bringing up a problem you can't actually address yet! You can't work on stopping the Cluster until Steven befriended Peridot! You can't have Steven befriend Peridot without getting kidnapped. He can't get kidnapped if you guys catch her before she could kidnap him!" Pink erupted all over him as he continued.
"I told you every time we had a stupid meeting that I would tell you when the time was right. Every single time you were mad at me and pressured me to tell you anyway! I'm trying to make things better, but you keep fighting me because you're too concerned with yourselves to LISTEN TO ME!" A shockwave resounded with his scream. Cracks traveled along the sandy beach and up the cliffside. The rumble knocked the gems down where they stood.
Steven knew he had to get down there. He had to stop this. He quit struggling in the whips hold and focused on summoning his bubble. It pushed against the whip, but eventually, his power forced the whip to break.
Twoie covered his mouth in horror. He hadn't meant to do that. The others were staring at him in shock. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lose control. I'm so sorry." Twoie backed himself against the cliff in an attempt to put as much distance between them as possible. The Crystal Gems got back on their feet.
"Twoie…" Whatever Garnet was about to say was interrupted by Steven landing in-between them. He looked furious.
"What is wrong with you guys?! We've both been trying to tell you the truth this whole time, but none of you are willing to listen!" Amethyst looked uncertainly at Garnet. She let her whip fade away.
Pearl still looked mad. "We gave him many chances to talk to us, Steven. And look at what happened? You got kidnapped, and he hurt you! He's most likely working with Homeworld, and we don't have Rose to help us if we get into another war!" Steven glared at her.
"You're still not listening! I'm not a dumb kid who doesn't understand what's going on, Pearl. I know you're scared of a war starting again, but I don't need you to remind me that Mom is gone!" He pointed at himself. "I'm here now, so stop wishing for her to be here instead!" Pearl was stunned. She lowered her spear in shock as he continued. "He's not working with Homeworld. Where did you even come up with that? He's trying to be careful because messing with the future is dangerous! You showed me that Garnet!"
Garnet had the decency to look ashamed. Steven clenched his fists in anger. He needed them to understand why they were in the wrong. "Twoie was upset that you guys didn't trust him. Yeah, he hurt me accidentally, but it's my fault too. He was in Mom's room since he knew he was upset, and I walked-in without getting his attention. He didn't know I was in the room with him! Stop acting so paranoid about everything. For once in my life, would you just listen to me?!"
The silence was palpable. Garnet looked from Steven, still in his protective stance, to Twoie. The young man was staring at Steven in amazement. She sighed. "Okay, Steven. Let's take this to the couch, and we'll listen. We won't interrupt, we won't judge, we'll let him explain."
Steven sighed in relief. He turned to his brother. "Twoie, did you hear that? It's okay now."
Twoie collapsed in a sitting position. Exhaustion was prominent in the way he was slumped against the cliffside. Two outbursts and an emotionally charged fight with his past family would do that to anyone. Steven pulled him into a hug. "Come on." He whispered. "Everything will be fine. I promise." Twoie nodded his head. Just as he was about to stand, a rumble shook the beach. He looked up to see a large edge of the cliff break off above them.
"Garnet, catch!" Shimmer. Thud-crack-boom-thunk.
The beach was veiled in a cloud of sand.