Chapter 14: Cipher Battle Pt. 2

"Alright, Crystal Gems; let's cut right to the chase." Phil said, having returned with Steven and Connie in his hand. "Either you all can surrender to me; admit defeat; and I shatter you… or I shatter the children. Which will it be?"

"W-what?!" Both Steven and Connie were at this point, seeing as how it was apparently either them or the gems.

"What?! You can't be serious!" Peridot exclaimed, having regenerated from earlier.

"Oh, am I?" Phil replied. Then, with a simple flick at Steven, Phil cracked Steven's gem, much to the horror of everyone, before tossing him aside, still holding on to Connie. "As a matter of fact, you have five seconds to decide, or I'll shatter the girl! Five…"

"Connie!" Steven cried out, as Connie was struggling to escape the creature's grip.

"Four…"

"Steven! Do something!" Connie said fearfully.

"Three…"

In a bold rush of courage, Steven ran forward and leaped at Phil, despite his cracked gem, in an effort to save Connie.

"Tw—" Phil was abruptly cut off when Steven landed on him, then punching him in the eye. "Ow! Oh. You!" Phil shouted. "You know what? I'm just going to shatter you right now."

"What?!" Connie gasped, immediately horrified upon hearing this threat. "No! Steven!" Fearful tears were already welling up in her eyes as she tried harder than ever to pull herself out of the creature's hand, desperate to rush to Steven's rescue before it was too late. After all, the thought of losing him, especially after he had so fearlessly and selflessly tried to save her, was far more than she could bear.

Unfortunately, there was nothing that anyone could do but watch in abject horror as Phil made good on his threat; firing a blast of energy out of his eye at Steven's gem, shattering it completely, as Phil dropped the two to the ground.

"Steven… I-I'm so sorry…" Connie choked out, watching as Steven's body slowly dissipated into thin air. Steven's final words before he vanished only made her tear up even more.

"Connie… I… I love you…" he said with tears in his eyes, as he faded away completely, leaving behind only his four gem shards in his place. Connie picked up the shards and bubbled them, sending them off to her room in the temple, as she fell to the ground in tears.

"Now that that pest is out of the way, let's get on to the main event." Phil said, before seeing a sight that made him do a double take.

Connie was slowly floating upwards; her body being surrounded by a steadily growing ball of light, until she was completely covered by it, obscuring her from view, before it imploded, sending off a shock-wave of energy, revealing Connie in an entirely different form.

Her hair was floating up in a bizarre fashion, her skin was now a dark shade of cyan, she had grown four extra arms, her eyes were glowing brightly and her pupils were no longer visible, and she had grown a pair of crystal wings, which, oddly enough, were shaped like a star when opened up.

"What the heck?" Phil asked in disbelief.

"You!" Connie shouted, her voice having a much darker tone to it as a result of her transformation. "You killed Steven! So now… I'm going to kill you."

"W-what the heck?! What happened to Connie?!" Pearl said.

Peridot pulled out her gem scanner again, scanning the transformed Connie, and gasped. "Um, well… according to this, what just happened to Connie is an ability that has only been recorded eight times in all of gem history: 'Feral Fury'. It is an ability that all gems have, but it can't be activated manually. It only occurs when the gem is feeling extreme amounts of anger; in which they will undergo this transformation and their power increases 100 fold." She said.

"Like… how mad are we talking?" Amethyst asked.

"Anger levels so high, that people like Steven would be entirely incapable of having that much anger."

"You are going to pay for that!" Connie shouted at Phil, then flew straight at him, landing a very hard blow on him.

"What's happening?!" Phil said. He then tried to punch Connie, but a strange forcefield suddenly appeared around her, shielding her from the blow. "What the…? No. No! NO! NO!" Phil yelled, suddenly growing eight more arms and trying to punch Connie, but every single blow was absorbed by the forcefield around her.

"Enough games." Connie said, bringing her hands together to summon an orb of pure energy. As the orb charged up, small bolts of electricity would jump out of it while it grew in size, until finally, it was as big as Phil's eye. "You die NOW!" Connie fired the energy at Phil, striking him directly in his eye, vaporizing him immediately, as Connie reverted back to normal, falling onto the ground unconscious. At the same time, the obsidian cages fell apart, freeing the others, as they ran over to Connie.

"Is Connie alright?" Pearl asked.

"Yeah. This is normal." Peridot assured. "The Feral Fury ability consumes so much energy that after it is over, the gem falls into a state of unconsciousness. She should be up in about three hours."

"Hey; what's this?" Amethyst asked.

The others ran over and saw a dimly glowing canister on the ground; the only remains of Phil. Peridot tried to use her scanner on it, but it came up with an error.

"I'm not sure." Peridot said. "I'll need to upgrade my scanner to be able to find out for sure."

...

"M-my Diamond! Phil has been defeated!" A Carnelian said, consulting White Diamond.

"WHAT?!" White Diamond yelled, enraged. "Ugh… well, if you want something done right, you just do it yourself." She mumbled. "Prepare the troops. We do a full-scale invasion in 10 Earth rotations."

"Yes, my Diamond." The Carnelian replied.