Chapter 20: Adventure's End
As Steven and Connie finish dusting themselves off from the debris of White Diamond's trap, Connie finishes explaining everything that happened since Steven was enveloped by the bubble of pure nightmares.
"…and before I came into the bubble to rescue you, I looked over and saw that White Diamond's army had captured the gems." Connie finished.
"So… basically, it's just us right now?" Steven asked, just to make sure he understood everything.
"Yeah." Connie replied. "Now, come on. Let's go save the gems." And with that, Steven and Connie set off down the hill to go and rescue the gems, fight White Diamond, and defeat her.
...
Meanwhile, White Diamond was holding the gems hostage on her ship, with a bunch of Amethysts guarding the cells.
"This is perfect." White Diamond gloated. "I have all of the Crystal Gems here, except for the hybrids. Now, I just have to wait for them to come and try to rescue them, and once they're captured, I will have them all shattered and the planet will be made into another gem colony."
"You'll never get away with this!" Bismuth shouted up at White Diamond. "Steven and Connie are going to stop you!"
"Yeah!" Pearl added. "They may not be full-on gems like the rest of us, but they're even stronger than we are!"
"And not to mention, they are fueled with the ultimate power: their determination to protect the ones they care about, their desire to save the earth, and their unstoppable love for each other!" Ruby added, who had been separated from Sapphire in the process of getting captured.
"I suggest you pipe down…" White Diamond told them, "…unless you'd like to be shattered right now."
...
Steven and Connie had now arrived at White Diamond's ship, which was stationed hovering over the ocean with the "hand" resting on the shoreline.
"This is it." Connie said. "The gems are inside of here, but so is White Diamond. We just find the gems, break them out, and defeat White Diamond."
"W-what if we get caught before we can save the gems?" Steven asked.
"Why don't we just fuse into Stevonnie so we'll have a smaller chance of being caught?" Connie suggested. "That way, even if we do get caught, we can just fight our way out."
"Sounds good to me." Steven replied. Steven and Connie then joined hands, fusing into Stevonnie, who then headed off towards the ship.
Stevonnie proceeded to approach the ship, but were surprised to see one of the fingers open up like a door. "Looks like they're expecting us." They said. Stevonnie pulled out their spiked shield, prepared for battle just in case, and charged inside.
Stevonnie was immediately met by a bunch of gems, consisting of Amethysts, Rubies, a few Carnelians, and even a Bismuth, all of them clearly intent on capturing them. Stevonnie could already tell it was too many to fight as though it were an ordinary battle, so they brought up their spiked bubble and tried to plow through, but there were too many for even that, since after a few of them got poofed, a bunch of other gems began pushing against the bubble until it came to a complete standstill.
Noticing this, Stevonnie got two swords ready, and made the spiked bubble expand before exploding, poofing a couple of the gems right next to it, and immediately began slicing their swords through several gems while spinning like a tornado. When Stevonnie stopped spinning, they noticed that there was only a single Ruby left, which they easily poofed. "That was a surprisingly effective method." Stevonnie said. Stevonnie then bubbled all of the gems, and sent them off to the temple, then continued to look for the gems. Unbeknownst to them, however, was that White Diamond had been watching the whole time on her monitor.
"The two hybrids fused together are much stronger than I thought." White Diamond mused. "I wonder what the chances are that I could get them to side with me…?"
Meanwhile, Stevonnie had happened across the area where the jail cells were.
"Perfect." Stevonnie muttered. They shortly after found the gems in each of their own cells.
"Stevonnie!" The gems called upon seeing them.
"Hey, guys!" Stevonnie said back. "Don't worry. We'll get you out of here in no time."
Stevonnie then unfused back into Steven and Connie, who went around the cells blocking parts of the anti-gem force-field so the gems could escape. Being only half-gem, Steven and Connie felt only mild discomfort from the force-field. After a few minutes, all of the gems had escaped.
"Thanks for the help." Lapis told them.
"Not a problem." Connie replied back. "Believe me, it was a lot tougher breaking Steven out of the bubble he was trapped in. It pretty much made your worst nightmares come to life."
"Sounds like it was quite the task." Garnet said, having just fused again.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" White Diamond said from behind them.
"Oh, boy." Amethyst muttered.
White Diamond approached the gems, or more specifically, Steven and Connie. "I have to say, you two hybrids are much stronger than I originally anticipated."
"What do you want, White Diamond?" Connie asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"You know, I could really use a pair like you two." White Diamond told them. "How would you like to become the next two Diamonds?" White Diamond offered, surprising everyone. "You could be Green Diamond…" White Diamond said, gesturing towards Connie, "and you could be the next Pink Diamond." She finished, gesturing towards Steven.
"Wait… what?" Steven asked, confused and surprised by this sudden turn of events.
"I said, how would you two like to be the next two Diamonds?" White Diamond offered again.
"You know, as nice of an offer as that sounds, you forgot one thing." Connie said.
"Oh? And what's that?"
"WE'LL BE SHATTERED BEFORE WE JOIN YOU!" Connie shouted at White Diamond.
"Oh, I think that can be arranged…." White Diamond replied coldly.
White Diamond then summoned her own gem weapon: a giant hammer.
White Diamond swung her hammer down at Steven and Connie, striking them directly, creating a crater and causing the other gems to collectively gasp in shock. But when White Diamond lifted up her hammer, it had turned out that Steven had protected himself and Connie from being smashed with his bubble, relieving the worry that the others had for them. At least, until White Diamond struck the bubble with her hammer as if she was playing golf, sending them soaring through the roof of the ship and out of sight. "Steven! Connie!" The gems called out, watching the bubble soar high in the air with the two inside of it yelling in fear the whole time.
The bubble kept soaring through the air until it splashed into the ocean, floating down to the ocean floor with Steven and Connie inside. When the bubble finally landed, it didn't take long for Steven and Connie to stand back up inside the bubble. "This reminds me of the first time we met." Connie noted.
"Oh, yeah…" Steven agreed. "But we should probably go back to where we were. The gems might be worried about us."
"And they could also use some help in dealing with White Diamond as well." Connie figured.
"Alright. Ready for me to pop the bubble?" Steven asked.
"On the count of three." Connie replied. "One…"
"Two…" Steven said, before the pair drew in a breath, ready to swim up as soon as the bubble popped.
The number three was never said as the bubble popped and Steven and Connie swam up, drawing in a breath upon breaking the surface of the water.
"There they are!" Pearl called out. "We were looking all over for you! After White Diamond knocked you sky-high, we fled to make sure you were all right."
"Don't worry; we're fine." Connie told them. "Steven's bubble kept us from drowning."
"Oh, thank goodness." Pearl said as Steven and Connie swam to shore. "I think we may need to regroup back at the temple and prepare ourselves some more."
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Lapis lamented.
And the group did just that. Although, as it turned out, once they got there, they found Sadie and Onion trying to come up with a battle plan. "Hey! There you guys are!" Steven called out. Sadie and Onion turned and saw all of the gems, as well as Steven and Connie.
"Oh, hey guys. We were just trying to figure out a way that we could help out. Although, it's kind of hard to brainstorm together when Onion literally never talks." Sadie replied. "Sorry it's taking so long. Did you guys win?"
"No, actually." Garnet answered. "And besides, we were only out there for about 2 hours."
"We had to flee to make sure that Steven and Connie were alright after White Diamond knocked them through the roof of the ship." Amethyst clarified. "So we came back here to come up with a plan."
"I see." Sadie replied. "Yeah, I'm not really having much luck on my end, so a little help would certainly be nice."
"Well, first, we're going to need to prepare." Bismuth said.
...
"Hey, Pearl! I think I found something we could use!" Amethyst called out, coming out of the temple holding a small, gray box labeled "HANDLE WITH CARE" as the others looked out of confusion and curiosity.
"What's inside?" Pearl asked curiously.
"Grenades." Amethyst replied with a large grin on her face. Upon hearing Amethyst's answer, all the others in the room immediately became frightened, knowing how dangerous a box of explosives could potentially be. Amethyst then just began laughing. "Don't worry, guys! They're completely harmless! Until you pull the pin out…"
"A-Amethyst… where did you get these?!" Pearl asked in exasperation.
"I raided a military base about 50 years ago for in case something like this ever happened." Amethyst replied.
"Amethyst, you can't just run in to a human military base and— wait… you planned for this?" Pearl asked surprised. After all, Amethyst usually never planned ahead; opting instead to do whatever seemed like the best course of action at the time.
"Yeah. Why?" Amethyst asked.
"Um, never mind." Pearl said "Well, regardless, these grenades could just be quite useful for this kind of situation."
"Amethyst, I didn't know you had a box of grenades in your room!" Steven exclaimed.
"Yeah, Amethyst! That's crazy!" Connie said. "Those would've been very useful in stopping Phil Cipher before he shattered Steven…."
"Well, you managed to fix that though, didn't you?" Steven said.
"Yeah, but it felt like a hundred knives had stabbed me when I saw you get shattered." Connie said. "I still keep thinking about how I could've prevented that instead of just watching it happen. I was so terrified when I saw that."
"It's okay, Connie. The important part is that you managed to bring me back." Steven told her. "I could never thank you enough for that."
"Thanks, Steven." Connie replied.
"Well, anyway, we should probably get back to planning out our battle strategy." Pearl said.
...
"Ugh! I still can't believe those pesky Crystal Gems got away so easily!" White Diamond said. "I had them right in my grasp!"
"Don't worry, my Diamond." One of White Diamond's Peridots said. "They will surely come back; I'm certain of it."
"Good. Because I'm brewing up a little surprise for them." White Diamond replied as she looked over, checking the progress of her potions that she was brewing. "Perfect. They're almost finished…."
...
"Alright, do we have everything?" Pearl asked.
"Looks like it to me." Garnet replied.
"Great. Now, we must go back and fight for real." Pearl said.
"Yeah! I can't wait to knock some sense into White Diamond!" Bismuth said. "Nobody messes with the earth and gets away with it!"
"I think that you two should stay here." Garnet said to Sadie and Onion. "If you come along, my future vision shows that you will get injured very badly, if not killed, no matter what any of us do. Don't worry, though, my future vision shows a good possibility of us winning, even without your help."
Sadie and Onion obliged, not wanting to get so badly hurt when it wasn't even necessary.
Steven, Connie, and the gems all head off towards White Diamond's ship, finding it to still be open. The group walked in to the ship, guards up in case there were any guards there. However, there were no guards to be seen.
"This is strange." Pearl noted.
"Yeah. It's like the entire ship was abandoned." Connie said. However, this turned out to be false, as they all encountered two Amethyst guards at the entrance to the throne room. However, instead of attacking them, the Amethysts simply told them that White Diamond was waiting for them inside, and let them through.
"Well, hello there." White Diamond said. "I've been waiting for you to arrive."
"Get to the point, White Diamond." Connie said.
"I believe that it's time that we finish this once and for all." White Diamond said, before the exits were all closed off. "No more running. And no holding back."
Steven and Connie then fused into Stevonnie, who pulled out their shield and sword, Bismuth shapeshifted her hands into hammers, Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet summoned their weapons, Lapis summoned her water wings, and Peridot began using her metal powers to levitate some metal rods that she brought, and White Diamond summoned her giant hammer.
"This all ends now."
White Diamond immediately swung her hammer down towards the gems, right as they just barely get out of the way in time. White Diamond swings again, this time Bismuth blocking the hit with her hammer hands mere milliseconds before she would've been crushed by it. The two are in a standstill for several seconds before Amethyst wraps her whip around White Diamond's ankle. Amethyst tries to yank it to make White Diamond fall, but she instead is flung into the air when White Diamond kicks her foot in the air with Amethyst still holding on to the whip.
Peridot then tries to use the opportunity to attack from behind, but as the metal rods are about to reach her, White Diamond turns and grabs the rods.
"Pathetic." White Diamond mutters, throwing them down back at Peridot, one of them hitting her in the head, just barely missing her gem, but making her dizzy from the impact.
Pearl and Stevonnie then charge at White Diamond on opposite sides of each other, Stevonnie landing a direct hit, but it was made apparent that that dealt very little damage. Pearl was kicked away by White Diamond before she could even get there.
Meanwhile, Bismuth was standing on Lapis' back as she flew up to White Diamond's head to try a sneak attack. White Diamond, however, turned at the last second and hit them both with her hammer, sending Bismuth flying into the wall, and poofing Lapis. Stevonnie quickly ran over to Lapis' gem and picked it up before White Diamond could shatter her.
It was then that White Diamond pulled out a potion, throwing it down at the gems, the liquid splashing all over the place. Pearl, Garnet, Stevonnie, Amethyst, and Bismuth were all affected by the potion, which caused their vision to go down to the point where they could only see up to 10 feet, then their vision went completely black.
"How do you like my potion of blindness?" White Diamond sneered.
"I can't see anything!" Stevonnie panicked.
"So my potion was a success." White Diamond said. "Well, no worries. There's more where that came from; each potion having a different effect. Don't panic though, they only last a few minutes."
Pearl was swinging her spear wildly, trying blindly to find out where White Diamond was, to no avail. Meanwhile, Garnet had resorted to using her future vision to guide her. But what she saw was startling.
"This does not look good." Garnet said. "My future vision shows us only having a 30% chance of success."
"What?!" Amethyst shrieked.
"Oh no…" Pearl muttered. Thankfully, just then, the potion of blindness had worn off.
Amethyst used this opportunity to use one of the grenades she had brought with her. She pulled the pin out, waited for about two seconds, and threw the grenade up at White Diamond, which then exploded near her back. Unlike most of the attacks that they were doing, this appeared to do a fair amount of damage. Although, White Diamond then decided to use another one of her potions.
"Eat potion of poison!" White Diamond shouted, tossing the potion down, which affected Stevonnie, Peridot, and Amethyst.
"Augh!" Stevonnie shrieked. "It feels like my skin is boiling away!"
Amethyst and Peridot were also feeling the effects of the potion; Amethyst feeling the effects more than Peridot or Stevonnie were since she was right next to the potion when it splashed everywhere. After a few seconds, Amethyst ended up poofing from the damage caused by the potion. Thankfully, though, the potion's effect had stopped before Stevonnie or Peridot were poofed. Stevonnie ran over and picked up Amethyst's gem as well, knowing that even though Amethyst takes the least amount of time to regenerate, it was still enough time that White Diamond could have shattered her.
Garnet, meanwhile, was repeatedly summoning her gauntlets and shooting them at White Diamond like missiles, while Pearl was beside her summoning spear after spear, throwing them at White Diamond. Amethyst then regenerated, ready to continue fighting, and shortly after, Lapis had also regenerated.
White Diamond threw down another potion, this time aiming directly for Stevonnie, which struck them directly, the potion causing immediate damage, enough to make them separate.
"That was my potion of instant damage." White Diamond told the newly separated Steven and Connie, who were lying on the floor, still in great pain from White Diamond's potion. White Diamond then summoned her giant hammer and struck Pearl and Garnet, who were still attacking White Diamond, sending them towards the other side of the room. White Diamond then swung her hammer down at Steven and Connie, but striking Steven's bubble instead. White Diamond repeatedly swung the hammer down at the bubble, gradually wearing it down.
Amethyst saw this and pulled out two grenades, pulling both pins at the same time using her mouth, counted to two, then threw them both up at White Diamond's head. The grenades exploded simultaneously, dealing quite a bit of damage. But before White Diamond could even strike back at Amethyst, she threw the last grenade up at White Diamond, dealing enough damage to poof the tyrant. Everyone began cheering at their hard-earned victory. But before Garnet could bubble the gem, White Diamond regenerated. It was then that White Diamond began laughing.
"You fools! Don't you know that a Diamond's regeneration time is an average of only two seconds?" White Diamond said. "Although, I must congratulate you. You managed to force the strongest gem in existence into their gemstone." White Diamond complimented. "But know this: you may have managed to defeat me, but I will be back. And when I return, it will be much more difficult for you to defeat me."
White Diamond then pulled a lever, launching the gems out of the ship. The ship then flew off into space, back to gem homeworld.
"We… we did it." Connie said. "We did it! Ha ha, yes! The earth is safe!" The others all began sharing in celebrating their victory. And although White Diamond had threatened to return in the future, Steven, Connie, and the gems could rest easy knowing that they had saved the planet.
THE END.