Stevonnie did not linger in the room for very long. As if a dense fog surrounded them, they tottered around, collecting papers, computer files, and photos, whatever they might need to analyse later. Stevonnie wrapped up the package tightly within a scrap canvas, using a metal shard to sew up the package. Stevonnie fastened the package to their clothes, sewing the top edge together with their shorts. Once finished, Stevonnie played the medic, patching over their more serious wounds with spit. Once finished, Stevonnie exited the room, rolling their muscles and readying themselves.
The white machines continued to work in the background, rising and falling gently, providing the room with a soothing thrumming noise. Against this backdrop, off-white statutes of varying size and colour littered the maze the machine made.
A spike of heat erupted in Stevonnie's chest. Though the statues did not move, Stevonnie did not doubt they were enemies. Most were humanoid, but with pitted and scarred limbs. Stevonnie could recognize arms and legs, but all lacked visible eyes or mouths. Many had extra limbs.
Kaolinites, Quicklimes, and many other oxide-type Gems surrounded the area, dotted here and there, motionless and deformed. The Gem closest to Stevonnie was a Xenon Tetroxide 40 feet away, covered with a thin white film, behind an Osmium Tetroxide.
From the very back, a Gem strode forward. As it approached, Stevonnie recognized it as an Arsenic Trioxide. It did not have a Gem as Stevonnie did, per se; instead a lump of compound was firmly embedded in its headless chest. In its fingerless hands, it carried a lump on a short, thick stalk. The lump bore slashes similar to Plutonium's. Stevonnie could only assume that was its head.
The Arsenic Trioxide stopped 30 feet away, and bent. It rolled its head forward, coming to rest 10 feet from Stevonnie. The headless body stepped back, to blend in with the rest. The head spoke, accompanied by a chorus behind it: "Welcome to Our Mining Facility, Steven. We see you have brought an unexpected guest. Introduce us."
Stevonnie resisted the urge to check if their packet was firmly attached to their shorts. "Do you mean Connie? We're Stevonnie right now, Leader of the Crystal Gems!"
"Well met, Stevonnie. We are what remains of White Diamond's Compound Analysis Project. White Diamond, She of the Many Eyes and Dazzling Complexity, She Who Weaves Networks and Joins Parts into a Whole, is on Her way. She is looking forward to a healthy bout with you. We will keep you company until She arrives, so please look forward to it."
After the announcement, the Arsenic Trioxide reclaimed its head, and melted back into the crowd. Not a single other Gem moved. The crowd kept its distance. 50 feet in the air, near the top of one of the white machines, a pink circle opened up, but the white of the machine swallowed it up.
Lion must be trying to get me out of here. Stevonnie decided to wait until Lion made a portal close enough to run into. They tried asking some questions to buy Lion some time. "Did White Diamond do this to you?"
"This?" asked the Oxide Gems as a whole.
"You know!" Stevonnie wiggled their sword tip at them. "What happened to your arms? Your legs? Your bodies?"
"Oh, this? It's nothing special. We were 'born' with it," replied the collective.
"Who were you created by?" asked Stevonnie. Lion poked his head out of another portal. Stevonnie took a few steps to the left, trying to approach it. Come on Lion! Make the portals closer! The Oxide Gems came forward, walking with Stevonnie. Stevonnie was just too far away to make a run for it and not get caught.
"White Diamond," said the Gems. "We are failed fusion experiments, waiting to be fixed."
"Failed, like the Cluster?"
"No, the Cluster came far after us," said the Gems.
50 feet in the air, Lion's head stuck out of his latest portal. He gazed at Stevonnie. Stevonnie tried to wink at him in a way that suggested he come down, without actually looking at him. Lion sneezed, and withdrew his head in right before the a wave of white surfaced from the machine and collapsed the portal.
Were the mining machines interfering with Lion's portals?
Another voice spoke, from the very back of the lot. "We now know that fusion is a mingling of two Gems' light forms. But back then, we thought the Gems themselves would combine, as a compound."
A laugh rang out, like shattering glass. "That was wrong, of course."
"We can fix you!" Stevonnie spat on their hand. "With my healing spit!"
The crowd of Oxide Gems did not move, but said, "Separation is the cure."
The voice at the back of the crowd rang out, "I'm ready to play! What do you want to do, Stevonnie? Chase? Run and go seek?"
The crowd began to move forward, at a leisurely pace. Stevonnie hurtled forward, leaping up and into the air, vaulting off an incoming Oxide Gem. Stevonnie shot up into the air, halfway to the ceiling. At the apex of their jump, Stevonnie halted their descent, floating in the air. Slowly, Stevonnie began to float to the ground. Stevonnie tucked their legs and arms in a little, turning in the air. With their head pointing down to the ground, Stevonnie spread eagle, gazing down at the soldier Gems.
The crowd slowly spread out, distributing the soldiers evenly over the mining facility floor. The soldiers directly underneath Stevonnie gazed upwards at them. It did not seem as if the Oxide Gems had any long range weapons. That's sorta dumb. Do they have any weapons at all? Come to think of it, Stevonnie didn't recall that Plutonium summoning any weapon either.
Three soldiers tried to scale the tall machines-the Gems' blunt claws gained no purchase on those behemoths' smooth sides and small cracks. Stevonnie, close to one such machine, reached out and seized hold of a tiny crack. Their fingers, still elongated from the earlier lock picking, fit in the crack nicely.
Stevonnie turned their attention back to the soldiers down below. Directly underneath them stood a skeleton-pale Gem, with bushy, spiky hair and skin that seemed to scintillate like a diamond under a harsh white light. The Gem, while more humanoid than those surrounding her, had no mouth or eyes but well-defined fingers, arms and legs.
Stevonnie shot their gaze around. Lion had not made another appearance, and as far as Stevonnie could gather, the mining facility had only one exit: the entrance. Stevonnie lay quite a distance from the entrance, however.
Hmmm…what if I dropped to the ground and ran…? The Gems had distributed themselves evenly over the floor. Stevonnie reckoned they could battle their way through the thinly distributed Gems. Those far away ones would take some time to reach wherever Stevonnie was.
But was there an easier way? I got it! Stevonnie had a flash of inspiration. They shimmied their fingers around, traveling clockwise around the machine until they faced the entrance. By my guess, I should hit the staircase about ¾ of the way to the top. Plenty of time to escape. Cool. Stevonnie flipped their hands around in the crack, then flipped their whole body, so their feet touched the machine. Withdrawing their fingers from the crack, Stevonnie kicked the machine as hard as they could, propelling themselves forward.
This is a lot slower than I thought. To Stevonnie's irritation, they floated through space at a leisurely pace, a tad quicker than the slow soldiers below. A thundering sound startled Stevonnie-the soldiers below clapped their hands as they pursued her. The Gems closest to the staircase began to climb it. What, is this some kind of game to them?
Stevonnie dogpaddled their arms and kicked their legs, struggling to swim through the air faster. Despite their efforts, they reached the middle of the steel staircase with the soldiers being ¼ of the way up-lower and slower than Stevonnie had expected.
Well, whatever. I didn't think things would go exactly the way I wanted. But this is good enough-I can get out, and take a peek at these stolen goodies. Stevonnie referred to the stolen documents of White Diamond.
Stevonnie leaped and bounded upwards, reaching the hatch with a good padding of space between them and the soldiers. Chortling, Stevonnie cracked their knuckles, and spared a glance down below. The soldiers had just reached the halfway mark on the staircase-on solid ground, Stevonnie could outdistance them any time. Stevonnie latched their ring fingers around the hatch's latch, and yanked downwards.
The trapdoor opened down an inch before something heavy shoved upwards, against Stevonnie, forcing it closed again. A white fluid, like white chocolate, dripped out of the gap between hatch and roof. Are there soldiers up there too? How did I get found out? I don't think anyone saw me, and there were no cameras…
Stevonnie pulled harder, anchoring their legs against the railing, but no dice. After a moment, Stevonnie suddenly let go. The hatch did not fall open as Stevonnie expected-whoever was up there had been expecting a trick like that. Stevonnie laid a hand on Rose's sword, then glanced down. The soldiers crawled upwards, ¾ of the way up the staircase. The Gems' bodies weighed so much, they could only take the stairs one step at a time, make a full stop, and then go up another step.
Unsheathing their sword, Stevonnie thrust the blade up, stabbing into the roof around the hatch. With a good deal of effort, Stevonnie valiantly sawed through the tough metal roof. Flakes of white roof and a shower of powder rained down on Stevonnie. They squinted their eyes and snorted through their nostrils to clear the nasty material.
Halfway around the hatch, a large plaster-coloured Gem tramped up the stairs, three steps away from Stevonnie. Stevonnie had stopped their chop job and now awaited the Gem's arrival. Letting the sword stick in the ceiling, Stevonnie kicked the Gem in the face, knocking it into the soldiers behind it. The rest of the line shuddered but did not fall.
Stevonnie did not wait for the Gem to recover. They strode forward, ground their heel down and kicked the Gem again in the chest, face, and kneecaps, knocking them down. The Gem roared and flailed as it fell, knocking against the Gem behind it. The line of soldiers staggered and fell in the stairway. Stevonnie shoved their shoulder against the fallen Gems, throwing them off-balance again.
Stevonnie returned to their sawing.
Just as the Gems recovered again, Stevonnie finished sawing around the hatch. The circle stayed in place—it would need to be tugged out. Stevonnie spun around to battle the soldiers in the stairway.
In such close quarters, a swordfighting would not be ideal. The soldiers were slow, clumsy, and big. Stevonnie had the advantage, as long as they had enough room to dodge and fight. Now what they needed to do was create that room.
Stevonnie slipped the sword from the wall and brought the hilt down on the Gem's head. It fell down again. A Silver Oxide right behind it shoved it to the side, and lunged forward to pin Stevonnie against the ground. Stevonnie leaped up onto the Silver Oxide's back, pushing it against the staircase.
As it tried to get up, Stevonnie shoved it back, giving them some space. Stevonnie bashed the next Gem in the face with their shield until they fell, trampling whatever Gems had become trapped beneath it. White powder flew from the wounds Stevonnie inflicted.
Stevonnie kicked the face of the soldier on the ground, sliding her back down, tripping up the next soldiers. Gaining space, Stevonnie continued to shove down the soldiers. It seemed more and more likely these "soldiers" had never seen real battles. As Stevonnie hit them once, twice, they tried to turn around and run, further compacting their comrades within the staircase. A few even climbed over the railings to escape the crush.
One or two enterprising individuals tried to ambush Stevonnie by climbing up the outside of the staircase, but Stevonnie could hear them as they climbed. They cursed and let their bodies scrape against the steel-Stevonnie knocked the soldiers away from them without a second thought.
One fell off the staircase, plummeting down over 40 feet.
The soldiers stopped trying to storm Stevonnie, and gazed down, letting out a collective gasp. When the Gem hit the ground, their body exploded in a shower of white powder and flakes. Stevonnie's heart fell as they scanned the area, hoping the Gem had not been shattered.
Unlike a real Homeworld battalion, the soldiers joined Stevonnie in watching for their comrade. Not a one made a move to use the distraction to jump them. Once the powder cleared, Stevonnie could see the white Gem from before gazing at a pile of powder and flakes. Sifting through the mess, the Gem produced a large hunk of Aluminium Oxide. The Oxide Gems on the staircase jumped and celebrated, clapping their hands and chit-chatting with themselves. Stevonnie took the opportunity to wrench the circle they'd cut off the roof. Stevonnie leaped up the stairs, covering themselves with their shield.
Not a soul stood in the staircase leading up. Then…who was stopping me from exiting? Confused, Stevonnie took the stairs two at a time, ascending the right twin of the spiral staircases. Soon they reached the joint, where the main staircase split into the two twins. Stevonnie opened the door to the small room, and shut it.
They stayed by the door for a moment, listening for pursuers, but there were none.
Stevonnie had reached the empty white halls of the Feet of White Diamond's building. Now they needed to leave the building itself. Stevonnie ran through the halls, surveying the ever-widening ways for other Gems. There was no one.
Stevonnie muttered over and over to themselves: Up the stairs, left, right, middle, through the double doors, up the elevators six floors, then to the Vein Lifts…All throughout Stevonnie's escape, no other Gems made an appearance. Where there had once been bustling crowds, there were none. Tellers and receptionists, secretaries and porters lining the walls had all abandoned their posts. The doors, locked; the halls, blocked.
I'm being shepherded. Stevonnie slid to a halt. I'm going…where someone wants me to go. Stevonnie gazed around the hall they were in, eyes alighting on a door. They tugged and pulled on it, but it would not budge. Every single other door was similarly fastened. Stevonnie could go only one of two ways: back to the mining facility under the building's feet, or…up, to wherever that shadow person wanted Stevonnie to go.
Armed with that knowledge, Stevonnie proceeded carefully. They tried every door, every hallway, every tunnel, but no. Stevonnie could go only one way. This way happened to be the exact way Stevonnie had taken to get down to the mining facility in the first place. Was I being watched? Stevonnie wondered. How else could they know the way I went down?
The path diverged at the Vein Lifts out of White Diamond's Building. A huge transparent glass shutter had been drawn over the terminal. Stevonnie had been blocked. Drawing out their sword, they smacked the glass. Opposite the transparent shutter lay a massive mirror set into the wall.
Stevonnie inspected the mirror, running their hand over its smooth surface. Maybe someone's watching me behind this. Stevonnie placed their ear against the mirror. Behind it, they could hear a whispering sound, almost like giggling.
A little movement caught Stevonnie's eye. Stevonnie stopped bothering with the glass, and turned their attention to the movement. A stream of black liquid dribbled down the left wall, four feet away from where the glass shutter met the wall. Stevonnie's eyes travelled left and right, down the hallway. More and more dribbles of solid white and solid fluid trickled down. The flow down the left, descending, corridor, grew heavier, pooling on the floor. As the white and black fluids met, they mingled together to give the appearance of molten marble.
Stevonnie swept their head to the shutter, and down the right, ascending hall. Should they try to escape via Vein Lift and leave the building, or ascend White Diamond's building further?
Chunks of the left roof plummeted down, letting streams of white flow out. Stevonnie turned and ran full pelt up the ascending corridors. As they ran, the walls burst from the fluid pressure. Stevonnie reached out and doused their hand in the molten marble. The white-and-black fluid was viscous and strangely warm. It fell off of Stevonnie's hand, almost as if it had been magnetically repelled from their skin.
Stevonnie finally came to a full stop. Through a small side door lay a thin bridge over a massive chasm. White crystals winked at Stevonnie down below; if they fell, they'd surely incur massive injuries, or die. Stevonnie had thought the white stuff would all drain into the chasm. It didn't.
A wave shot out of the door like a gun, engulfing Stevonnie in the stuff. The black-and white fluid flowed over Stevonnie, hardening into a coffin, locking them in place with only a few centimetres of space between them and the hard solid.
The marbled fluid receded from the coffin, revealing its rectangular shape. After a moment, the rippling waters bore it along its currents, to the triumphant hands of White Diamond. Coffin in hand, White Diamond displayed the white and black case to her retainers. The White Sapphires, Zircons, Agates, Pearls, all of those assorted retainers clapped, for their Diamond, the Great White Diamond alone, had captured Stevonnie.