Missing Peace: Chapter 22
Rose raised her sword and charged at Steven and Connie. She moved far more quickly than her bulky frame would suggest, and Steven barely had time to raise his shield before her sword came crashing into it.
She forced him backwards, his feet sliding along the smooth floor as he tried to get traction. Connie leapt over him, using the top of his shield to push off for a second jump. Her sword was raised above her head, ready to strike, but Rose was too fast.
Rose jumped back about ten metres in a single motion, dodging Connie's blow. She dashed forwards again, at the same ludicrous speed, swinging her sword with the full intent of cleaving Connie in half.
In the split second he had to react, Steven enlarged his shield as much as he could, and swung it over his head, dropping it in front of Connie. The transparent pink wall deflected Rose's attack in the nick of time.
"Connie!" he yelled over the ringing sound of the sword striking the shield "we can't cover ourselves and attack at the same time. You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Connie grinned. "You know it."
Steven and Connie stood back to back, clasping each other's hands. A warm glow emanated from behind the shield as Rose watched on perplexed. When the shield dropped, there was no Steven, or Connie. There was only the one.
Stevonnie raised their head and glared at Rose. Twirling Connie's sword in one hand, they summoned a shield in the other. "I won't let you hurt anyone else" they said defiantly.
Rose practically growled her reply. "Fusion?! You even fuse with organics now? Is there no end to how you disgrace our world?!"
"It's not a disgrace! I'm gonna show you just what it can do!" Stevonnie leapt forwards, swinging their sword. Rose deftly blocked it with her own blade, and soon the two were duelling. It occurred to Stevonnie that this reminded them a lot of when they trained with Pearl. If Rose was as good with a sword as she was, this was going to be tough.
Emerald and the Peridots backed away as Rose was pushed back through the position they had been standing. Rose still had the strength advantage, but Stevonnie was more practiced. They parried each of Rose's blows expertly. Finally, Rose left herself an opening. Stevonnie parried another sword blow, and with their other arm, swung Steven's shield directly into Rose's face.
Rose was knocked off her feet, and rolled a couple of times before coming to a stop. Getting to her feet, she snarled, before spinning up into a flaming ball and firing at Stevonnie at ludicrous speed.
Steven, and by extension Stevonnie, had seen this move from Amethyst and Jasper before, so they knew how to respond in theory. However, Rose was faster than either of the other two Quartzes, and Stevonnie was barely able to dodge her attacks as she careened from wall to wall.
Finally, Rose span up one of the walls, and launched directly down from the ceiling. Stevonnie raised their shield to block her, but couldn't take the full force as the deck beneath them buckled under the attack.
Stood over the now crouching Stevonnie, Rose kicked their leg out from under their shield, sending them sprawling onto their front. Grabbing them by the arm, she threw them over her head. They slammed into a console, destroying it.
"Eurgh…next time we go to homeworld, we'll pack a helmet."
Stevonnie barely had time to clear their head before Rose charged again, sword held high. As she brought her sword down, they rolled out of the way, as Rose sliced the smashed console in two. As she turned to face them again, they slid between her legs, slicing her calf with Connie's sword.
Rose fell to one knee. Stevonnie spun out of the slide to face Rose, and threw Steven's shield. Rose caught it one-handed, but the attempt distracted her from Stevonnie's approach. They landed a jump kick to her jaw, and she was sent sprawling a couple of metres across the floor, stopping when she bumped into the bridge's main viewscreen.
"Rose, we can stop this now. Just come back to Homeworld with us, and we'll talk this out; find some way to make up for what happened to you."
Rose got to her feet and glared at them. "Save it, Pink. You can't make up for it. And either way, you're in no position to make demands." Her grimace turned into a smirk.
Swinging around, she shattered the viewscreen with one titanic punch. Everyone on the bridge grabbed the nearest thing they could as the air rushed out, except for Rose, whose weight seemed to allow her to move against the rushing wind, albeit just barely.
She slowly trudged towards Stevonnie, who was hanging by a small cable. Stevonnie threw a shield at her, but she caught it easily. She lifted it to her face, studying it. "So, this was your Gem weapon while you were impersonating one of us. A fitting way to end this."
With a wicked smile, Rose threw the shield, with as much skill as Steven could have. It curved in the air, and perfectly severed the cable Stevonnie was clinging to. As Stevonnie was flew past her, they locked eyes for a brief moment, before Stevonnie was blown out of the ship completely.
Stevonnie quickly bubbled themselves as quickly as possible, trapping enough air for a minute or two. As they flew further from the Annihilator, they could see the whole battle. The Facet 31 ships were no longer firing on the Diamonds' fleet. Instead, they were all turning to face roughly the same way.
A moment later, small black voids opened up in front of each ship, and the vessels jumped out of the system with such speed that they seemed to distort in a spiral-like pattern as they left. The Diamonds' fleet was in no condition to follow. Even the ships that weren't disabled were damaged and sluggish. Facet 31 had got away.
Stevonnie collapsed to their knees inside their bubble. They'd failed. There'd be no tracking Facet 31 now. For all anyone knew, they could be heading to attack Earth at this very moment. Stevonnie was shaken out of their commiseration when they were bathed in bright light. They fell against the back wall of the bubble as it stopped flying abruptly.
Looking up, they saw that White's ship had caught them in a tractor beam. In the heat of the moment, Stevonnie hadn't even noticed that it hadn't still been attached to the Annihilator when they were flung away from it. White must have pulled away during their fight.
Stevonnie's bubble was pulled in through the seemingly solid wall of White's ship, and they were soon stood in White's chamber again, surrounded by the Crystal Gems. They looked pretty battered, but luckily they'd all made it back to the ship before the Annihilator jumped out of the system.
Stevonnie collapsed in exhaustion and unfused. Amethyst and Pearl caught Steven and Connie as they fell. They embraced each other in relief that they were all still alive.
After a moment Pearl spoke up. "What happens now?"
Steven looked over to her and Connie, some determination returning to his face. "We need to get a warning to Earth..."
Author's Notes: Just some housekeeping this time: how do you guys feel about my super frequent upload schedule thus far? Is it good for you, or is it making the story hard
to keep up with? If you're the type to leave reviews, let me know. Thanks.
EDIT: reuploaded this chapter due to the fic not updating on my end, hopefully this fixes it. sorry of you got notified about this chapter twice.