Stevonnie and Jasper find a mysterious room and find out more about Medusa Quartz.
Working alongside a former enemy was considered normal by Stevens standards.
Jasper remained silent as they paraded their way towards the Southeastern section. Memories from Steven went by them, recalling their fights and his fights, as well as Jaspers previous dip with corruption. Stevonnie didn't want to ask about the pain. No one really did. She kept to herself and no one tried to bother except maybe Steven, Amethyst and Peridot.
They'd come across a locked door. Stevonnie tried to use Snow's gem to open it, but it declined access. They growled in annoyance as Jasper tried to ram it with her crash helmet. As expected, no dice. Jasper had sworn that door was accessible at one point, unless a type of lockdown was initiated. Great...just perfect.
"Isn't there another way around?" Stevonnie questioned.
Jasper shook her head.
"Ehh I don't know. There's only one other hallway near here that leads to another locked room and that's it." She said.
That made Stevonnie curious.
"Locked? As in, exclusive gem access locked?" They pointed out.
Jasper shrugged.
"Maybe. I'm not sure. If you want to give it a try then let's not waste any time here."
Stevonnie was actually proud of Jasper to point that she barely raised her voice with them by this point. By accepting or at least under the illusion that they were really Pink Diamond, it kept her in a sense of calm and was willing to help out and give suggestions. Stevonnie didn't like manipulating her like that, but Jaspers own mental state in recent times had always teetered on the edge between brutal outbursts and tolerable calm. Whether or not that it been due to her previous corruption or other underlying causes, it was certainly better than her attacking them outright. They let Jasper point the way as they turned back around and walked down to the hallway she spoke of, which wasn't far from there as they found it after going left and right a few times. Though going from the strain on her face as they walked, Stevonnie suspected she wanted to say something.
"What's on your mind?" Stevonnie asked.
"Nothing my Diamond. I'm fine." She replied sternly.
They continued onwards as they came across the door, however, this was different from the other ones they'd encountered. It was made of a shiny metal alloy as opposed to the more futuristic material. There was an air about it that felt off, but strangely, there was nothing that suggested the Lillims influences were on the other side of it. They placed their hand on it and closed their eyes. Ultimately they felt nothing, then pulled out Snow's gem and put it under the scanner. The red light poured from the sphere above, as the light above the door turned green with approval. The door shifted open with a grind as they entered the room.
Inside was more of a human design than what Stevonnie had become accustomed to in gem facilities like these. The room was squared shaped with a larger pillar in the middle. There were shoddy cabinets and steel drawers on the left hand side and even a bed of all things on the right side, raised up and reachable by a set of stairs to the side. Computers, old white computers with their bulky monitors and dusty keyboards were laid around the pillar on top of old wooden desks and navy desk chairs behind each of them, with wires poking out from the back and rising up on the pillar itself and into spaces on the roof. The walls were a dirty white with simple lights.
There was a symbol of a dragon with some kind of aperture icon on top of it, on a black flag that hung on the front part of the pillar. They walked around and noticed that behind the pillar to the far back wall was another sample tube, but it was closed off and of a different design than the rest. It had the dragon symbol on it again. It was very human-esque indeed.
"This place looks..." Jasper worded.
"Primitive?" Stevonnie continued.
Indeed it did. Stevonnie took to sitting in front of the first computer and found the on switch on the right side and listened to the internal fans as they whirled to life. They could see the green text on screen. This old technology was before their time so it would take some getting used to. They could really use Peridot right now.
"Please enter password." It said.
Oh gosh, a password? Jasper walked around as she tried to suss out the room for herself.
"I take it this is human junk?" She asked.
"Yeah." Stevonnie replied.
"Very old by modern standards. See if you can find a password in one of these drawers...or anywhere really."
They both searched the room thoroughly, but they found nothing but scrap paper for old schematics that made no sense to either of them. Jasper then eventually went to the closed off green tube, as Stevonnie went to the bed. The blankets looked dusty and were of a creamy white colour due to age and wear. But then they noticed a soft toy on top of it. A grey wolf?
They turned it around for a bit, examining it. It looked pretty old too, but then they noticed the slit on the bottom of it, held together by velcro. They ripped it open, revealing a white box inside. Stevonnie took the box out. It had a small lid which flipped open and revealed a small scrap of paper inside that said Hungarian Wolf. Which made no sense. They sat on the bed and held the paper under the light. What did this mean? Was this the password?
They hoped off and tried it. Denied.
"The only wolf I know of is was that story during our Book Club Session. Those human-beast things." Jasper noted.
"Had no idea humans could shape shift like that."
Of course! She'd seen the term Hungarian Wolf before. The girl who was afraid of dragons...no the prequel. Connie knew of this when she researched the names. She loved doing the odd wiki walk every now and again. What was the characters name again?
"Farkas!" Stevonnie exclaimed with realization.
They typed in the name and pressed the enter button.
"Authorization confirmed, welcome Diga Arch-Fire." It read on the screen.
The organic Milky talked about. This was...this was her room.
"What do you know, those books were actually useful." Jasper commented.
Diga must have been a fan of the series then.
A human had been here all this time. Or rather, someone who was like a human. Didn't have to be, for all Stevonnie knew.
The text came up with a menu of options. Logs, Email Correspondence, Project Files, Project Status, Important Persons List and Notes, Verity Status, SoA Location, Lillith Notes. Where to begin?
Stevonnie entered into the logs section, which came with a huge packet of journals. Stevonnie didn't know where to start, so they picked one at random in the middle.
LOG RW-19B01-24-01
I tracked her coming here all these years ago. Who would think that this had taken thousands of years of planning. Still, the amount of trouble she goes through to try and destroy people like that astounds me. She can't be reasoned with and as with all previous incidents...the Doom-Driven Crisis, the Entropy Incident, the Sole Search Problem...she thinks she can dip into any realm she wants. And out of all the ones she decides to visit, she wrests her laurels in one of the more peaceful places to sow chaos and despair.
If it weren't for Petra and Zinnia, bless their hardened souls, I would not have found her. Who'd thought Petra would find little Zinnia finding one of the Portal Gateways on some random planet? As if Earth wasn't going to be the most obvious place to start. Zinnia is a go-getter, an ambitious example of the best the Homo Magia can offer.
Meeting Milky Quartz on the Lillim's most recently infected planet was pure fate. We had a chat about the situation and I was more than okay to help out as she gave me invaluable knowledge about her kind. Sentient Gems reminds me of the Phoenix Mage Society in a weird way. The more data she gave me, the more I was giving to them to help them win.
Years on, she's got a decent crew back on Earth. Herself, A Labradorite, a Black Star Sapphire, a Black Pearl and a Pyrope Garnet who helped out on the planet during the war. I don't trust that Pyrope though. It's those...science obsessed people than I often have qualms with so I'm just biased.
Sapphire-Class gems are apparently seers to gem kind. We're gonna need all the edge we can with our allies, so I had Petra empower her to strengthen her visions of the future. I knew Lilith was out there, being the idiot that she was. Black Star...well, she didn't bode well with what she saw. I'll have to come back at another time until I've gotten everything I needed from her. For now, I'll need to prepare Milky to help defend the planet from...when ever Lilith decides to invade.
Lilith. She had to the Lillims leader perhaps. Or at the very least their creator. But there was so much to take in. This...Diga had found out about the Lillim and tried to defend Earth against them. They tried for so long, so Stevonnie wondered where it went wrong?
They got out of the entry and went to the last entry they could see.
LOG RW-20C16-31-07
Well, this is all I can do for now. I have sown the last seeds for success. I have to leave this all here for now. I want to help further, but I can't have Lilith realizing I'm here. If she finds out about me, she'll flee the realm and we'll have to start all over again. Black Star's Prophecy has progressed as predicted. The Diamond Child will not be alone. Medusa Quartz...remains sealed inside the tube. But I worry about her regeneration. I've imparted a part of me into her so she'll be immune to infection, but she'll claim some of my more...necessary abilities, just slightly rewritten in a way...unless she starts singing dragons I'm not too concerned. Not to mention it'll help keep her light mass stable. I know Milky was paranoid about the whole thing but I sincerely believe Medusa will be fine. As long as she goes by her old nickname Snowflake, Lilith will not be able to find her.
The last thing however, was the final cornerstone of the project. I don't want to do it. But I need to. Black Star noted that Milky had gone insane from nearly being infected and tried to attack people on sight, leaving her Labradorite trying to contain her, due to the Labradorites current programming to attack Snow Quartzes that attack their fellow gems. I told her not to touch the Sealed Cores in the Southeastern Section and look what happens. Tragic, for sure but we can only keep so much contained in Quarantine. Medusa ended up attacking and poofing her. The poor gem. I'll need to get her out as soon as possible and find a way for her to get back to Homeworld, alongside her faithful Labradorite. But she'll need to have her memories altered to save her the trauma. Black Star said she would be back some day.
I'll keep the rightmost door locked, but Black Star stated someone in the future will need to gain entry in there, as it will be the only door that be be opened in the case of a lock down. It can only be opened from within my room. Old tech, but it'll work.
I've had a few of my Crusader Admins from Verity come in to help program a special Blackbox AI that will function as a Security System as part of it's current application suite...obviously not as grouchy as an AI I already know, but one that can act as a Gatekeeper to this place, so Medusa would be the only one who'd be able to enter. The Blackbox can work in this room if inserted and will give the codes needed to access the Southeastern Section from here. I felt...odd about Black Star's unusual request that she calls a GIS. (Gem Intelligence System). It's like an AI, but with more oomph and connectivity with others. One with guidance and range. That will help pacify Milky as well as protect any uninfected gems and life forms. I'll go with what Black Star suggests, as Petra suggested it too. It hurts to think about it and neither Black Star or Petra like the idea. But we need it.
I shouldn't feel like like this, though I'm completely saddened over the convergence over Apophyllites creation. The Black Pearl and the Pyrope had no idea. Those two had vanished completely into the Southeastern Section after it was locked. Milky and Pyrope were the only ones with access to that area, which was only ever used for storage and large sample studies. I fear the worst.
Oh well, it's only a matter of time. By the Divines, I pray the Diamond Child succeeds otherwise...as long as his Heart remains strong, he will endure.
Our plan in the Delta Kindergarten is our only Hope.
Jasper peered over from one side of the pillar, as well as Stevonnie from the other. That tube contained a Medusa Quartz. But like the previous log, there was still a lot to understand. Milky nearly got infected but was too severely traumatized they needed some kind of artificial intelligence to subdue her, as well as her Labradorite. Sheesh.
"Black Star must have seen Steven come in here." Stevonnie murmured.
"That Petra bolstered her future vision immensely." Jasper commented.
"Who ever these organics were...they're quite...strong."
Like wise. But they had a plan for this. But one thing troubled them.
"The log said Medusa was the only one who could enter. Yet you're here and it was Snow Quartz who let us in." Stevonnie pointed out.
Jasper grumbled.
"Pyrope changed it somehow. But I still don't get to visit most of the areas." She said.
The orange Quartz wandered over to the tube as Stevonnie continued to investigate. So much information at their fingertips. But as they tried to get into the other files, they showed up as being deleted. Hmmm...but they needed this Blackbox to enter through the door on their right, as Stevonnie stared at it for a good while. Then they noticed Jasper as they laid against the nearby cabinets on the left hand side of the room, with her arms crossed and disgruntled discontent written all over her face.
Jasper would be one who would have a million clashing thoughts in her head and decided on words that could be on either side of the spectrum. She was a loose canon that would be prone to friendly fire. One could pity her, but that would just piss her off even more if she found out.
"Speak freely Jasper, I'm an open forum." Stevonnie suggested.
Her face changed of that to surprise as she looked at Stevonnie, then squinted as she looked away and gave off a small pout. Stevonnie stood up and leaned next to her. Jasper had so much to say yet, refrained herself. Stevonnie kept making faces in an attempt to weasel the words out. Jasper looked incredibly perplexed yet weirded out by their odd display.
Jasper sighed, relenting.
"I was...I was gonna ask." She spoke, finally.
"How do you stay stable...as a fusion?"
That was the last thing Stevonnie would have expected her to say, although they should have expected it, given Jaspers own experiences with fusion.
"You...and that other Fusion..."
Garnet...
"You fuse to become stronger but you're able to maintain this..form for ages...and yet you're don't seem to be in disagreement or fighting off the other gem all the time. Is there something I'm missing?"
Stevonnie realized that Jasper couldn't understand permafusions. She only fused for power to dominate, as evidenced by Malachite and the monstrous fusion Steven saw at the Beta Kindergarten. But there was more to it, than a simple power high. Jasper was lonely.
"There needs to be balance between fusions in more ways than one." Stevonnie said, using Garnets advice.
"Trust...respect...love..."
Memories of Steven and Connie dancing together brought warm feelings to them, as they unintentionally grinned and hugged themselves in response. They then noticed Jaspers stares, who was giving off vibes of being a tad troubled by it. Stevonnie came to and cleared their throat.
"The status of your relationship matters. You bond with the one you want to fuse with and you need to understand each other...to be a good experience for the other person."
Jasper relaxed back a bit more as she turned her head from Stevonnie. Malachite hit her hard.
"I may not be...a complete fusion since one of the core components is missing, but I'm able to be me because of Connie's...connections with Steven."
Stevonnie froze as they remembered that the human Steven was still missing from them as they looked at their hands. They hoped he held on, but the Gem Steven seemed to be completely silent in the matter, which made Stevonnie begin to think hard about it. Part of Stevonnie felt that the human Steven was still alive there somewhere.
"Not complete?" Jasper questioned.
Even Stevonnie couldn't understand it. How the Gem part of Steven even fused with Connie to begin with. They lightly touched his gem as they tried to make sense of it themselves. They explained how Steven was half human and half gem and that his unique biology allows him to fuse with her normally. But on this basis...
"Hmm...I guess that makes sense. I'd never heard about any other gem fusing with anything that wasn't. I wasn't made to understand the exact science behind our making, only bits and pieces of what I should know. I used to believe that fusing with a different gem type was straight out wrong...but even as I tasted it myself, I could see why they would hate it." Jasper noted.
Stevonnie understood even Pink Diamond didn't even know this until she saw Garnet for the first time.
"A fusion could rival the Diamonds themselves. They'd feel threatened with the amount of power even a simple two gem fusion could be."
Although Yellow Diamond could still poof them with ease.
"But Connie is fully human...as she fused with a full gem...biologically, that should have been impossible."
Jasper looked confused.
"I don't understand...you say he's half human, half gem..so then how did he suddenly become full gem?" She questioned.
Painful memories fluttered back of White Diamond once again. Sorry Steven...
"I...Connie was there when Steven encountered White Diamond on Homeworld." Stevonnie continued.
Jasper was surprised again, but utterly...and strangely curious.
"Go on..." Jasper told them.
Stevonnie further explained on how White Diamond was insistent that Steven was Pink Diamond and pulled out his gem to prove it. Except it didn't come out the way she wanted. All that was left was a Steven with no gem and a Gem Steven that held absolutely no restraint when provoked hard enough. It had no personality either and it held a simple desire to refuse with Steven, no matter what collateral damage could be left behind in the process.
"A Diamond fighting a Diamond. I wish I could have seen that." Jasper admitted, more fascinated by the capabilities then the disturbing aspects of it all.
Stevonnie didn't even mention the fight between Yellow and Blue Diamond. They decided to leave that part out.
Silence mellowed between them as they had more work to do on their end. Jasper walked up to the tube behind them and examined it.
"This...this is where Medusa was supposed to be." Jasper stated.
Stevonnie joined her as they looked at the monitor connected it. Stevonnie had a fiddle, in which the only things written on it were 'open panel'
They followed the prompt with a key press, which shifted the whole thing open. But what they found in the tube wasn't a gem. But a Thought Marker.
The glass shifted away, allowing them to access the Thought Marker itself, as Jasper took hold of it. She took a look at Stevonnie and nodded, whom then took out Snow's gem once more to reflect her light on it.
Out appeared...a gem that they hadn't seen before. A small one, with her gem on her left cheek and long black hair and dress as she held her hands together in front of her, in a prayer position.
"It's a Sapphire." Said Jasper.
"The Black Star Sapphire."
"It's you...Stevonnie and Jasper isn't it?"
The two looked at each other, completely and utterly dumbfounded.
"I know...I've been preparing for this. Listen, I don't have a lot of time. I'm going soon and I need to leave as little as I can so Pyrope doesn't find out, but enough of a trail to help out with you all wandering in the dark. She was the one who let the Lillim loose. It could have ever only been her. Not Milky. Milky did what she could and...with Diga and the Crusaders of Verity, we worked so hard to make sure our project could be completed. But Milky...was tricked. We all were. Project files were stolen from us. So we worked Medusa into our plan as a contingency measure. She needs to guide the Incarnation of Hope to the Delta Kindergarten.
I know she was supposed to be in here but I set her free. So she can go back to Homeworld, for her own safety."
Jasper ended up punching one of the nearby cabinets and distorting it so bad the drawers flew to the other side of the room, forcing Stevonnie to barely dodge them.
"Restrain yourself Jasper." Black Star said with the same tone as before.
Stevonnie was subtly amused.
"She will return to Earth to finish the job. Just make sure..she has a Labradorite with her. And Stevonnie...please...P- oh...more importantly, please let the gems in. There's a hidden door to your left that should be banging any time now...I must go. Good luck!"
The projection faded, leaving both of them scrambling and sorting through the new set of information. Stevonnie had heard that term as a whisper...Incarnation of Hope. Whispers echoed in the air as it chilled. The Lillim were nearby.
As if on cue, the pair of them heard banging nearby. Jasper ran over as she punched more cabinets out of the way and noticed another metal door behind them. She looked at it briefly as dents were left behind. Stevonnie came around to press the nearby button to shift the door open, as they noticed Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl as they fell through on top of each other.
"CLOSE THE DOOR! CLOSE THE DOOR!" Pearl yelled.
Stevonnie nodded as they shifted the door closed, with the screeching on the outside nearly becoming unbearable. All of them scrambled to put the cabinets in front of it, even if they were all broken.
They remained silent for the longest time, keeping low until the noises stopped. Stevonnie took a deep breath and breathed out with their mouth forming a small o.
It wasn't until they realized Jasper was in the room that the situation irked up again, as the three other gems went into a defensive stance around her. Jasper just grinned as she prepared her crash helmet.
Sigh.
Stevonnie stood in front of them with their arms spread out.
"Okay time out, time out." They called out.
Easing the tension with former enemies was also the last thing Stevonnie expected to do.