"Time flies when you're having fun." That was a proverb Lapis was familiar with, though not exactly one that she thought about too much. After all, Lapis wasn't exactly the kind of person who regularly got to have fun since she was trapped either in a mirror or under the sea for most of her life. Not to say that pre-Homeworld life was unfun per se, yet at the same time it's really hard to have fun when all you really did was whatever your kind was specifically created to do, and maybe lounge around with other Gems among Blue Diamond's court every now and then.
But now that she had the freedom to spend the last few nights with Steven, happily taking in the beauty of Empire City or just hanging around Beach City together? She was completely taken aback by just how true that saying was. All the nights they spent watching the fountains, visiting museums and concert halls, or riding the rides at Funland went by so quickly that the sun would come up before she knew it... until she found herself flying to the barn one last time.
The sun was slowly rising, bringing the countryside to life while Steven and Lapis soared above the clouds, showing that a new day was dawning... for Earth, and Lapis Lazuli. Today she'd be making her long awaited departure from Earth, this time for good, and she'd be free to find peace away from the planet. Away from all the strife, all the pain, all the drama that had ruined her life...
"Well Steven, looks like we're here." Lapis announced when the barn came into view, with the escape pod resting on the grass neatly in front of the door. "I just can't believe it's that time already..."
"Yeah, the last two weeks went by fast." Steven remarked sadly while Lapis made her descent. When she touched down on the ground, he smiled a bit and added, "But we had fun, and that's what matters!"
"Well, yeah. But..." Lapis sighed while she let Steven down, "I kinda wish I got to stay on Earth for just one more day. Are you sure that we can't spend any more time together?"
"One more day? But Lazuli, I was under the impression that you wanted to leave Earth as soon as you could!"
Lapis balled her right hand into a fist on instinct while Peridot strolled out from behind the pod, a smug grin on her face while she approached the duo. "With as soon as you could meaning as soon as I finished repurposing the escape pod! And voila: it's ready to go!" Peridot typed on a security panel installed on the pod, and gave a bow as the pod's glass cockpit slid open, revealing a rather nice, plush seat surrounded by blinking monitors and a large control panel.
"Huh. Doesn't look that different from back when it was the drill!" Steven noted while Peridot wagged a scolding finger.
"To an untrained eye, it would appear that way." Peridot admitted, "But most of the repurposing I did had to deal with was the escape pod's inner workings. I had to make it capable of flight once more but with the controls I installed for drilling, make it capable of breaking orbit, making sure it can travel at as close to light speed as it can get... And of course, that in turn made me have to take several trips to scavenge the parts I needed: a few to the Moon Base, a few to some old Gem ships here on earth, and then came the test flights... but at last, the fruits of my hard work have ripened! What do you think, Lazuli?!"
Lapis gave a rather large yawn of boredom, and smirked at Peridot's resulting frown before shrugging. "It's fine, I guess. So how am I going to fly this thing, anyway?"
"Well, it's pretty simple!" Peridot climbed into the pod and scooted over to the right side of the seat, and patted the left with a silly little grin on her face. "Hey Lazuli, you want to climb in? I can't show you everything when you're out there, you know!"
Lapis gave a heavy sigh and buried her face in her palm. As loath as she was to admit it, she'd have to climb in next to Peridot if she wanted a complete understanding on how the pod worked. "Alright, fine. Just give me a second." She left Steven behind and climbed into the pod, sitting right next to Peridot who grinned widely at her presence.
"Alright Lazuli, listen up! If you want to put this thing in motion, first you flip that little switch over there!" Lapis glanced at the control panel, which was mainly occupied by a large screen displaying a picture of the Earth. To the right of that was a little switch that from the look of things had already been flipped. "Of course, you don't need to flip it now, but that's how you activate and deactivate the pod!"
Peridot then turned to a large button and pressed it. Upon doing so, the pod's glass cockpit slid shut, and suddenly the pod began to raise into the sky only to lower back down with another press of the button. "Now, movement of the pod can be done manually, but by default there's an autopilot feature installed that can take you to your destination via inputs down here!" Peridot pressed one of the many buttons underneath the image of the Earth, which caused it to rapidly zoom out until Lapis could see nothing but tons upon tons of stars.
"Huh. So that's a star map of some kind?" Lapis asked, to which Peridot nodded.
"Exactly! There are far more that aren't recorded, but this has the location of over two billion stars posted on it! Including the stars making up the system that ought to keep you safe and sound from Homeworld: the Nova Veluti System!" Peridot pointed to a small grouping of stars far to the screen's eastmost side. "TA-DA! What you're looking at is territory Homeworld can't get its hands on!"
"Oh yeah, Steven mentioned that." Lapis noted, thinking back to their discussion that night a while back, "Apparently they're going through some kind of resource shortage and that's why they can't colonize planets that far out. That, and apparently the locals can actually fight back."
"That's right, Lazuli!" Peridot chuckled. "Homeworld tried to conquer it around three hundred years ago, but lost after five years of fighting resulted in too many Gems being shattered and countless costly resources being wasted! It was declared to not be worth the losses, so they withdrew their forces. And because of that, it's a fairly popular destination for Gems that rebel against Homeworld!"
"But anyway," Peridot continued, switching her focus to the ship, "Just one last thing you should know is that while you're backed up by an autopilot system, it's always nice to know how to manually fly the ship in the event that the autopilot fails for whatever reason! Or if you have to dodge an obstacle like an asteroid on short notice! And of course, there's always the worst case scenario of you getting attacked by a hostile ship. You see, to control the ship manually-"
"Look, can you just give me the short version and let me leave already?!" Lapis snapped, absolutely hellbent on leaving the planet as fast as she could, as well as spending the least amount of time necessary with the little green gremlin. Peridot frowned a little at her sudden declaration, but took a deep breath and began rapidly pointing all over the pod.
"You see that pedal on the floor? You step on that, and you assume manual control of the pod while also moving forward. You see that control wheel? You turn that to make the pod go left or right. You see those levers? Pulling one helps the pod ascend, the other makes it descend. You see that controller over there? You use that to control the ship's blast cannon. And if you want to get inside of the pod, the security code is 5271. Any questions?"
"Nope. I'm good." Lapis said before glancing outside the cockpit and frowning, "Now let me out of here. I want to say my last goodbyes before leaving."
Without a word, Peridot landed the pod and opened the cockpit. But while Lapis stood, she grabbed onto the blue Gem's arm before she could step out and talk to Steven.
"Lazuli, wait!" Peridot squealed while the other Gem snarled in annoyance.
"Would it kill you to just leave me alone?!"
"Lazuli please, just hear me out and you can go! I promise!" Peridot begged. Lapis was tempted to just throw her out of the pod, but decided to hear her out... for this one thing only.
"Fine. But make it snappy." she growled, much to Peridot's pleasure.
"Well... Lazuli, I'm... I'm sorry." Peridot apologized meekly, her head sinking to the ground. "I'm really, really sorry for the bad things I did to you. For interrogating you, torturing you, dragging you back here... I just wish I could make up for it, but this escape pod's the best I've got. You don't have to accept my apology, I just... I just want to make things right the best way I can, you know? So uh..." Peridot then began to twiddle her thumbs a bit and blushed before continuing, "You have a safe trip out there, okay?"
Lapis breathed harshly out her nose and came dangerously close to crushing her temples with her fingers. She was apologizing now? After all the stuff she put her through, after having the gall to act like she had done nothing wrong to her when they ran into each other weeks ago? As far Lapis was concerned, it was too little, too late. Oh no, she had a few choice words for her...
Or at least, she did until she looked back outside the pod, and saw Steven waiting patiently for her and within earshot of the pair. His smile gentle and eyes brimming with youthful energy... she could already tell that having to leave a friend behind was causing him emotional turmoil. Did she really have to add to it by being rude to Peridot? So for Steven's sake, Lapis took a deep breath and forced a smile on her face.
"Thanks, Peridot. I forgive you." Lapis thanked coldly. Her insincerity was lost on the Gem, as she perked back up with her eyes starry and wide, and with dumbfounded look plastered on her face. "Now go away."
"Y-y-yes! Thank you, Lazuli!" Peridot jumped out of the pod and walked away, and under her breath Lapis could hear her chuckle madly to herself. "NyahahahahahaHA! Yes! YES! She accepted my apology! Lazuli likes me now!"
'Pfft, don't flatter yourself.' Lapis scoffed internally as she joined the smaller Gem and left the pod. She then approached Steven, and no longer had to force the smile on her face.
"Hey Lapis!" Steven greeted her, the ever-so smallest hint of sadness in his voice, "So I take it you're gonna leave now?"
"Well, yeah." Lapis confirmed, "The pod's ready, Peridot gave me a rundown on how the controls work... no use standing on ceremony, eh?" She chuckled, unable to hide the small twinge of regret in her own voice.
"Yeah, you've got a point." Steven admitted sadly, "But man, I'm really gonna miss you!"
"I'm going to miss you too, Steven." While she literally didn't have a heart, Lapis could feel a clenching pain in her chest all the same. "All the fun we had, all the things we saw... it's not going to be the same without you."
"Well, look at it this way: even if I'm not gonna be there, you'll still have plenty of fun adventures in space! I mean, just imagine all the crazy stuff you'll see! Maybe you'll fight giant chameleon monkeys! Ooh, or visit planets that have purple rainstorms! Ooh, ooh, or maybe you'll see some space whales! Oh man, what about-"
"I get it, Steven: space is a crazy place!" Lapis chuckled warmly before turning to the sky. "But I have to admit, it's also kinda nerve-wracking. I mean, there's so much stuff out there I'm not familiar with! You think I'll find a safe place, or people who will like me?"
"Aw Lapis, of course you will! You're really nice, really pretty, and you have super cool water powers! The people out there are gonna love you!" Steven gushed, which elicited another chuckle from Lapis.
"Oh, you're too kind, Steven!" Lapis giggled, though she could feel her insides bubbling up with guilt. Considering that she was abandoning Steven, nice was pretty much the last thing he should be calling her...
"Hey, before you go?" Steven interjected, pulling her out of the quagmire of self-doubt that was slowly consuming her, "I've got a real cool going-away present to give you! Just hang on a second, okay?"
Steven ran over to a workbench near the barn that had four items resting on it, and scooped them all up. He then made it back to Lapis and tossed one of the items, a strange mostly circular object with the word "SUMY" engraved on it, into her arms.
"Oh! Well... thank you, I guess?" Lapis thanked reluctantly, not exactly sure what the boy gave her.
"You don't know what I gave you, huh?" Steven asked, having caught on pretty quickly. "Well, you know how we had so much fun listening to music together?"
"Yeah! How could I forget that?" Lapis sighed, the beautiful melodies from fountain shows, live concerts and the like still fresh in her mind.
"You see, I thought a great going away present would be my old SUMY CD Player! It's a little device that'll play music for you if you put in a CD! Just look!" Steven reached over to the CD Player and pressed a button, which opened it up and revealed a disc of some kind. "This is a CD I had my dad burn for you! It plays a whole bunch of different songs if you press that button over there," Steven pointed at a thick square button with a triangle shape engraved on it, then pointed to a floppy black notebook looking object of some kind, "And there are a bunch of other CD's in this holder over here! Most of them are old songs dad and I like, but one of them?" Steven blushed and smiled sweetly. "It's a special album dad and I performed for you. I hope you'll like it!"
"Well that sounds really neat, Steven! Thank you!" Lapis giggled and ruffled Steven's curly locks before frowning and pointing at the last object in the boy's hand: a plastic baggie full of odd metallic cylinders, "But what's in that bag you've got there?"
"Oh, more batteries! If the CD player stops working, just pop in a new pair and it'll keep on chugging along! They're basically CD Player fuel!"
"Alright, thanks for the heads up!" Lapis giggled, "So, you have anything else to give me before I go?"
"Nah, that's about it... except for a big goodbye hug! C'mere, you!"
Steven tackled Lapis with a firm, warm hug, and Lapis giggled with girlish glee as she swept him up and returned the favor. And since this was likely going to be the last time she'd ever get to do this, Lapis made sure it was the strongest, most loving hug she was capable of. She eventually set Steven on the ground with a pat on his back, and wiped a tear from her eye as she smiled sweetly at him one final time.
"I'm going to miss you so much, Steven. You take care of yourself, alright?"
"I will, don't worry!" Steven laughed, "Just make sure you remember to do the same!"
"Heh, I'll try my best..."
With her shiny new CD player in tow, Lapis climbed into the pod-turned-ship and got comfy. Remembering Peridot's lesson, she pressed all the buttons necessary to get the pod into the air, selected the Nova Veluti system on the star map, and smashed her hand down on the liftoff button. The effect was instantaneous: the cockpit slammed shut, and through it Lapis could see Steven waving goodbye to her. The escape pod vibrated violently as it rose into the air, causing Lapis to be shaken like crazy while more and more energy gathered around the top of the escape pod, until...
*BOOM!*
With a powerful explosion, the escape pod was propelled straight into the air at a breakneck pace while surrounded by a neon green aura. The countryside Lapis could see through the cockpit seemed to grow smaller and smaller and smaller still... until she broke through the atmosphere, and soon all she could see was a huge blue planet, the lush green and sandy brown continents below looking nothing like the countryside she had been at almost a minute ago. She couldn't see him anymore, but Lapis just knew that Steven was still standing where he was, waving enthusiastically as he saw off his friend for one last time.
'Thanks for the memories, Steven. I'll never forget you...'
XxXxXxXxX
"See ya, Lapis." Steven quietly said to himself as Lapis' pod shot off past his line of sight. He could feel his eyes slightly well up, but the smile on his face when he looked up at the sky was genuine. He was already missing his blue friend, but at the same time he was happy for her. Now that she had left Earth for good, she'd be free from all the bad things that happened to her! Free to blast off into space, and boldly go where no man has gone before! In fact, he was already hoping that she'd be back soon, if only to hear all about the cool stuff she'd see out among the cosmos...
"STEVEN! GET OVER HERE, HURRY!"
Peridot's screechy, nasally call for help caused the boy to jump about a foot in the air before he gathered his bearings.
"I'm coming, hold on!" Steven ran over to the barn, where Peridot had wandered over to after waving goodbye to Lapis. He wasn't sure what got her so riled up, but she was standing in front of a workbench, sweating profusely. "Hey Peridot, I'm here! Is something wrong?"
"Wrong? You don't even know the half of it, Steven Quartz!" Peridot sputtered while Steven made it to her side. He could see that her already light green face had grown several shades paler, and she was tightly grasping several long light green rods in her hands."I... I've made a terrible, horrible mistake..."
"Like what, Peri?"
"You see these, Steven?" Peridot asked Steven as she showed him the green rods in her hands.
"Yeah! What are those?"
"They're fuel rods, Steven. Rods of solidified plasma that Homeworld has used as fuel for ships for the longest time. And that includes escape pods, too. Like Lazuli's."
Steven cocked an eyebrow, not really sure where Peridot was going with this. "Uh, OK? I'm not really sure what you're trying to tell me, Peridot."
"I went through the trouble to grab a few from the Moon Base, knowing that the hyperspace jump needed to reach Nova Veluti would burn through her fuel... AND COMPLETELY FORGOT TO GIVE THEM TO HER! I'M SUCH A STUPID, STUPID CLOD!" After her cry of fury, Peridot devolved into a bunch of incoherent gibberish as she fell on her back and tossed the rods in the air before thrashing her limbs around.
"Oh!" It had finally sunk in for Steven, who then turned his face back up to the morning sky, only for his pupils to dilate when he let the ramifications sink in. "...oh."
XxXxXxX
Author's Note: There isn't much else to say other than from here on out, the story REALLY begins: this was pretty much something of a longish prologue. I promise, next chapter and all those to follow will be a lot more fun and action-packed... and since you guys have had to put up with a slow prologue? I'm uploading the next chapter later TODAY instead of next week, so stay tuned for that!
