Garnet braces for the worst
So much darkness was laid out before them. The earlier vision scarred her, knowing that Steven was somewhere out there, with the potential for getting himself hurt.
She trusted him immensely as he'd always surprise her frequent occasions, so he had to be with them still. But the darkness clouded her judgement and made her increasingly concerned and often distracted by the implications.
Still, she had the Gems to lead and they were going to get to the bottom of this.
She was thankful for Peridot for taking in the reigns of the GIS as Amethyst and Pearl trailed behind her, running down the southern hallways. However they come across several Lillim along the way. They tried fighting them off, especially with the Lemon Quartz gem (despite Pearl loathing to use it(. But they were too strong in numbers, as they preferred to distort their surroundings to disorientate them all.
Garnet used her future vision, seeing Stevonnie at the end of the paths they could take. She pulled the others along with her, streaming down at super speed while the Lillim attempted to catch up to them. They'd come across a steel door, then noticed it was locked. The three began to punch the door as the Lillim got closer. Eventually the miracle occurred as the door opened, only to be met with Jasper alongside Stevonnie.
They were prepared to fight until Stevonnie intervened. Garnet then noticed Stevonnie's odd colouring. She feared the worst, although Pearl began to freak out even more so. Stevonnie assured them that Jasper was there to help as they calmed the situation down, as Amethyst was more surprised at Jasper even being there in the first place.
"Stevonnie...what happened?" Pearl questioned, her eyes wide as she tried to process why Stevonnie looked like that. They frowned, as Garnet noted dark feelings of horror that crept up on her.
"I...I don't know. I'd gone down the elevator with Snow and Black Pearl earlier, defused on the way down. Steven was no where to be seen until...until..."
Pearl was biting her fingers at this point, but something told Garnet that Stevonnie didn't want to talk about it.
"It's complicated. I don't think Steven wants to tell you..."
Steven was holding his emotions in again. Garnet could see that and was going to wait patiently until he was ready to talk about it. Garnet grabbed their head with a gentle touch and looked into their eyes. So much trauma could be seen from within them. Something about Stevonnie...was off, however.
"You can either unfuse to let Steven tell his side, or you can stayed fused if he wants Stevonnie to do it instead. It's up to him." Garnet stated.
It would prove the the unusual situation of they did, but Stevonnie looked away, as if they were in shame.
"We wish we could...I..." They murmured as they started to cry.
"Was it something that happened to the both of you?" Pearl wondered.
Stevonnie kept their mouth shut as they broke down. Garnet could sense they'd wanted to do this for a while. She had them sit down on a chair, their legs closed as they slouched, while Jasper and Amethyst talked to one another. Garnet got to Stevonnie's level as Pearl rubbed their back. She noted that he fusion was oddly stable despite the negative impact of their emotions. She'd chalk it up to them learning how to balance it easier through practice in recent times. but deep down, it was much more problematic than that.
"It's okay, you can tell us." Pearl assured them.
What ever it was, Garnet had the belief it had been more on Stevens side than it was Connie's. The colouring of their hair and skin would have to do with something that had changed on his end. Something about his form or his gem had changed the more Garnet examined them. They weren't in sync... but...Garnet did not see any split due to stress. In most scenarios Garnet would be impressed, but this...this lead to her being extremely worried.
"Something about this is wrong." She said.
"We can't force them to say anything until they're ready. Or...if Steven is ready."
Their bond was incredibly strong that Connie had been shouldering Steven's grief alongside her own, one side had definitely been coping worse than the other. It made Garnet left wondering about how this came about...this...Pink Stevonnie was nothing like they had shown before. She made the connections and had a few ideas, before Stevonnie revealed the horrific truth.
"I..Steven's...his gem...it was taken out of him...and..." Stevonnie stammered, fighting through their tears.
Steven's Gem had been removed. Pearl was beside herself and in more panic than before, before she resolved herself to be stronger for them in a more zen state of mind. Ruby and Sapphire weren't expecting that, of all truths. She let Stevonnie continue with the tale.
"Yeah...so, Connie had been...in an incredible amount of pain...like she was dying...until she saw him. It's...like a Pink Diamond coloured Steven. Somehow, that he fused with Connie and I'm here. It took me a while to see that while I remain, the Steven aspect of the fusion has remained completely mute on the topic...not to mention how...incomplete I feel." They said as they touched their gem.
"Don't ask me...how they removed it. I just...I don't even understand..."
This didn't make sense. Connie was a full human and part of the reason she was able to fuse with Steven to begin with was that his human half was able to make it happen. This Steven was a full gem, however. So there was already a barrier to begin with. Unless that Steven's gem broke boundaries in regards to possible futures, the fundamental gem programming rewritten in ways that developed over time since his birth. Garnet noticed Pearl as she fell into deeper thought, her hand cradling her chin.
"It might be due to Connie's developing Aura." Pearl theorized.
That had be mentioned in previous talks, but Garnet didn't want to dig into anything deeper than she understood.
"Snow Quartz did say that Connie had one like Stevens. Standard gems have incredibly, insignificant auras that won't have much effect, only that they're an afterthought, a result of our light and mass projections. But Diamonds have Auras...with a capital A. Steven inherited Pink Diamonds and that from repeated fusions, it started to affect Connie's biological structure. It wouldn't have had that much effect on her and that the changes would be minuscule at best. A little faster or stronger perhaps? But nothing out of the ordinary that could be seen straight away. Until Snow pointed it out."
Garnet had never even heard of such a thing. Although, from her years as a fusion, Steven was incredibly unique. Everyone knew that. Garnet took a side glance as Jasper. One who was evident enough to know how fusion could change its components and in the end, corrupted her until she was cured. Corrupted gems in general were unfortunate, lost souls. But their gem programming was sufficiently altered to affect normal gems if fused. It was the same thing.
"But what does that have to do with why Steven's gem wanted to fuse with her? What does it even mean..." Amethyst queried.
That could be why. They simply did not know enough about Steven's gem to be able to explain it.
"Sounds like he got shattered." Jasper commented from the shadows.
Shattered...
"What little I learned from that green runt, was that shattered gems who try and form with one another turn into some monstrosity, hold a single hunger to become whole again..."
Garnet looked back to the gem experiments and the horrific forced fusions they'd come across. So, Jasper did learn a thing or two.
"So Steven's Gem was trying to find his human half. Instead, he found Connie and detected her Aura, which is identical to Stevens. Her biological status had mutated enough for his gem to mistake her for Steven and to fuse with her...I wonder if I got that right.,." Pearl stated, albeit horrified by the implications.
There was doubt that it was an accident. But Stevonnie noted they felt incomplete and their sadness could be correlated to a similar need to being whole. Steven and Connie had a deep love for each other that had extended to his gem...from what Garnet could logically guess, could be an undocumented reason. It was incredibly hard to say, especially if nothing like this had ever happened to a gem before.
"What I want to know then...is where is the rest of Steven?" Pearl questioned, fretting.
Hopefully not dead and in pieces. It became incredibly important for them to get to him before it was too late.
"I...I don't know. Jasper and I were investigating this room to find a way around to the Southeastern Section, where he could be. But it seems that Black Star Sapphire left a message behind. Something known as the Incarnation of Hope that would be lead to the Delta Kindergarten by Medusa Quartz." Stevonnie explained.
Black Star's Prophecy. It made little sense to them on the whole, but Garnet wouldn't doubt a fellow Sapphire's prediction, no matter how vague. The only thing they didn't know was what they meant by hope.
"Who is Medusa Quartz then?" Jasper called out, on the same train of thought.
"It was supposed to be here...and she's not so what's the point? And Incarnation of Hope? I'm not aware of anything of the sort!"
Garnet looked at Stevonnie, who ruffled the words in their head like everyone else. Then she realized...no one noticed that Snow wasn't with them until Garnet rescanned the room. She was supposed to be with them, but she trusted Stevonnie knew exactly what happened.
"I noticed Snow Quartz wasn't with you." She pointed out.
Pearl and Amethyst gasped, like they had forgotten her too. Stevonnie then pulled a gem out and had it in their hand.
"She got poofed trying to protect us." Stevonnie said with sadness.
The three other gems looked at Snow's gem closely. She had yet to reform, but Garnet noticed the gems odd design. Half pure white, half with green and blue dots. She used her future vision and noted that they will need her Labradorite for help. At least she was glad for it for working this time, albeit still aggravated that it wouldn't work for Steven.
"But we can't get access to the Southeastern Section without the Blackbox GIS." Jasper groaned.
"Everywhere else is blocked off. Though the Snow Quartz gem has been able to get us in here."
This particular gem worked to open certain locked doors. This instantly became suspicious, but it wouldn't prove Garnets theory, not until they'd get inside the Delta Kindergarten. For now, all they could do is have Stevonnie utilise their Diamond to gain entry. It gave Garnet an idea.
They surmised their plan to return back to Milky's Chamber, although it wouldn't be easy, given that the Lillim roamed outside and were prepared to strike. They'd return Stevonnie back to the Chamber to gain access to the Delta Kindergarten and get the Blackbox off of Peridot to use for later. Use of her future vision became frantic however, because Garnet didn't know what to expect. From what little she could see, there was a part of it that didn't seem like it would go off without a hitch.
Once they were in agreement, they through all their hands in, including a hesitant Jaspers. They looked at one another nodded before making their move.
They got out of the room without fault, as Garnet took the lead in keeping an eye out for any Lillim in the area. There was a slight chill detected, going from the slight foggy smoke that came out of Stevonnie's mouth. She noticed the fusion had a constant tick where they would hover their hand over their gem briefly, like they had a sick stomach. Ruby and Sapphire knew that as a hollow feeling. Right now, Stevonnie was two/thirds of themselves and the only humanity it could vouch for was Connies. How desperate did the gem have to be in order to fuse back with itself? Like Jasper said, gem shards hold a desire to be made whole and as Garnet, as well as Ruby and Sapphire debated the complexities of it.
It's horrifying to think about. It alone, causes so much hurt. Ruby thought.
Because the thought of being shattered brings us fear. It's a phantom pain that comes from seeing others having being shattered before. Sapphire told her.
They all believed Steven was like a fusion unto himself. The concept of his gem being removed weighed heavily on them. Garnet could see a Pink Steven somewhere in the blacked creeks of her vision and would not be able to steer herself towards it. Not one person had all the answers to something as varied as this. So many possible futures paraded off into the shadows...
It had Garnet think back to the Era 3 ball on Homeworld. Steven seemed...so miserable when his plan for White Diamond to arrive. An outcome to that could have been worse than what actually occurred, but Connie. Connie pulled Steven out of his funk and had him relax. That was an aspect that Garnet did not see coming. Sapphire was limited at that time, but once Connie made that spontaneous decision, that future spiraled out of control.
Going back even further, Steven's whole fusion with Connie to begin with was not of anything Garnet could see over all.
So...like Ruby, Connie had on many occasions pulled Steven in unexpected directions. A human, an ordinary every day human. Like Greg, held the power to change fate.
Humans hold something we don't. Sapphire voiced.
But Connie is just human, like I'm just a Ruby. We're fighters. The other gem noted.
Fighters of said fate.
But Garnet was the herald of that change, just as Stevonnie was. They would need to stumble around in the dark from time to time in order to succeed. Something clicked in Garnet's vision as she stared at Stevonnie while they stopped. Despair was on the horizon. She kissed Stevonnie's forehead to show them where to go, which confused the other fusion immensely.
Whispers echoed nearby as Garnet raised arm and clenched fist to get everyone to stop moving and be silent. They weren't too far off from the entrance to Milky's Chambers. However smoke entered from down the hallway closest to it. She pulled out her gauntlets and prepared everyone to fight. It was the same towering monstrosity from before, much to their dismay. Pearl slid in front of her as she brought out the Lemon Quartz gem and prepared to shine its light.
More Lillim appeared from beside them. Garnet tried to make out their forms as they were covered in films of fog and could only make their shining red eyes. She turned to see more sneaking up on them from behind, striking her briefly with surprise. How in the world they got behind them that quickly without them knowing was beyond them, irritating Garnet to no end. Pearl blasted the light and created a path as they charged through, only for Garnet to hear Amethyst crying for help. She turned to see one of the Lillim had got a hold of her leg as she tried to whip, but it was like attacking the air. Garnet growled and told the others to keep going and that she'd catch up to them as she ran up to Amethyst, only to be blocked off by huge whips of shadow. Garnet dodged and weaved its attacks, only for Amethyst to be dragged off into the shadows.
"GARNET HE-" Amethyst cried out before she was silenced by the tentacles that curled themselves over her mouth.
The fusion was left blaming herself and continued fighting through. The constant flailing whips kept pushing her back instead of going forward to try and save Amethyst. She saw the light coming from the Lemon Quartz, as Pearl charged past.
"Garnet c- where's Amethyst?" Pearl questioned.
"She...they took her! Garnet remarked, her voice choking. She hated saying that and she hated breaking out like that.
Pearl was left beside herself as they kept fighting, back to back. Pearl had her spear cut through numerous tentacles as she tried holding the darkness back as much as they could with the inactive gem, while Garnet. The hallway itself was too small the maneuver so Sardonyx was out of the question. They pulled off numerous flips, tricks, punches and kicks constantly with haste poise and grace, to stave the Lillim off. Garnet knew they couldn't fight forever and Amethyst had to have been long gone. Future Vision demonstrated a singlet glint at the end of a very long and dark tunnel, giving Garnet little comfort.
It was until the Lemon Quartz gem was knocked out of Pearls hands by flick of a tentacle that the two were in deeper trouble than they had ever been in. It left their sight entirely. They stood back to back to back once more. The pain riddled in Garnet's chest was immense. Ruby and Sapphire clung onto each other with pure willpower as Pearls sobs threatened them to split.
"I told Jasper to take care of Stevonnie." Pearl told her as she clung onto her spear the tightest she ever could.
"Stevonnie, obviously protested." Said Garnet.
Pearl nodded.
"I couldn't protect Steven or Amethyst...I'm sorry." Garnet told her.
The amount of guilt Garnet felt from not seeing what she wanted to see in her sights. She didn't stop trying but it always ended the same way. That glint: they had to fight for it.
"I'm sorry too." Pearl told her, as she swiped an oncoming tentacle in half.
It wasn't long, until the darkness blinded them.