CHAPTER 8: THE PLAN
"Pearl… did… did we?..."
"O-oh… Lapis I-I'm so sorry! J-just let me-"
"No! No… wait… it's… it's… really nice… I… I had forgotten what it felt like to do this with someone you trust…"
"Y-you trust me?"
"Of course… you know… we are more similar than I initially thought…"
"I'm… glad we can finally get along…"
"Me too… thank you… for what you said to me… you are one of the few I can really call… friend…"
"I-I… well… you just needed someone to show you how much strong you really are… I… I didn't do something really amazing…"
"You're wrong… you did something extraordinary… and you did it for me… so… let me repay you…"
"L-Lapis why are we walking towards the cliff?!"
"Feel what real freedom is Pearl!"
And that was it, real freedom, when Angelite stepped off the cliff and hovered in the air. Needless to say, Pearl never felt anything like this, indeed, she always felt more than happy to become one with anyone of her teammates, especially with Rose, but with Lapis, she felt something different, something new… and it wasn't the fact that, well, now she could fly, it was the fact that now she could feel what real freedom was… for all these years she had been confined on Earth, unable to revisit the beauties of the cosmos… but now she could do it again! No more fights… no more worries… she could have flown away right in that moment and she could have wandered through thousands of thousands of galaxies and…
"Pearl… stop…"
"We are so close… we could do it now… we could-"
"We could Pearl… but what about what you have here…"
"I…I…"
"What about Steven? Don't you care?"
"L-Lapis… I… please I didn't… forgive me… I…"
"You can't use it for that Pearl… I understand that at first it looks like the perfect loophole from all of your problems… it looks like no one will ever be able to stop you… no matter how strong… no matter how fast someone could be… but… flying away isn't always the best solution… trust me… I've experienced it on my own skin…"
"I'm sorry Lapis and… thank you for this… it's wonderful…"
"I'm happy I could share this with you…"
"Oh… my… stars…" Steven exclaimed as he stood in front of Angelite, as tall as Rainbow Quartz, with a long, light blue dress with two ribbons, one around the pelvis and one around the neck, as she stepped on the beach, two, large water wings disappearing from her back.
"Steven!"
As soon as Angelite saw Steven standing in front of her, she glowed bright and in a matter of seconds, Pearl and Lapis landed on the ground. Steven ran towards the two gems and embraced them both as he looked at them with stars in his eyes.
"Guys you were amazing! Your fusion is so beautiful!" Steven beamed happily as Lapis and Pearl looked at each other smiling slightly.
"R-really?" Pearl asked as she gently patted Steven's head.
"Yeah! You should do it more! What does it fell like? What is your weapon? Oh! Is your fusion's personality a completely new one or-" Steven asked frenetically as Lapis giggled softly.
"Now Steven, calm down… w-we could still hear each other but our movements were coordinate… it… felt… really nice… different from what I feel during a fusion with Amethyst, or Garnet, or… well… and well, I don't know what our weapon looks like… w-we didn't summon it… but I guess w-we'll discover it soon or later… r-right Lapis?" Pearl asked turning towards Lapis, a small blush on her face.
"Of course…" Lapis said smiling gently, as the trio moved towards the house.
"Lapis… are you ok?" Steven asked with a hint of worry in his voice.
"Yes Steven… I… I'm ok now… I'm sorry I didn't stay there… I should have stayed and protected you… I hope you can forgive me…" Lapis said keeping her gaze low.
"Of course Lapis! Those clusters were… pretty scary…" Steven said scratching the back of his head.
"Thank you…" Lapis said as she, crossed the threshold of the door.
As they entered the house, Pearl, Lapis and Steven found Garnet, Amethyst and Peridot waiting for them. Garnet was leaning against the counter as Peridot talked to her while, Amethyst was sitting on the couch, listening to their conversation.
"Lapis… welcome back…" Garnet said as the blue gem approached her, alongside Pearl and Steven.
"Garnet… I… I'm sorry for-" Lapis tried to apologize but was interrupted by Garnet who held her hand up.
"You don't need to explain yourself… trust me… I understand… now we all have to discuss about the danger the Earth itself is heading towards…" Garnet said as Lapis tensed up.
"What are you talking about?" Lapis asked as she looked towards everyone in the room.
"Those experiments were just prototypes for Homeworld's most hideous creation… a massive agglomeration of gems shards… the cluster… and when it'll take its physical form… it'll destroy the planet…" Garnet explained as Lapis covered her mouth, horrified by her words.
"H-how are we going to stop it?" Lapis asked with a trembling voice.
"At first we couldn't come up with a single idea to stop the cluster… until Garnet showed me what she retrieved from Yellow Diamond ship's remains…" Peridot said as Garnet summoned a bubble which contained a large, black shard.
"What is that?" Pearl asked as she stepped nearer to inspect the strange object.
"This… is a shard of Yellow Diamond ship's core…" Garnet said as all of the team came around her.
"In these conditions… the shard is useless… but its charge consists in the same energy of the destabilizers… now consider the fact that the cluster is basically a fusion composed of millions of gem shards… what comes to your mind?" Peridot asked as Pearl's eyes lit up.
"If… if we could manage to recharge the shard and reach the cluster… t-then we could use the shard to destabilize its structure and… and make it fall apart!" Pearl shouted in excitement.
"Exactly… that was our idea… but in order to reach the cluster we'll need to built a machine capable of taking us to the center of the Earth… plus… in order to recharge the shard… we'll need a power core and an adapter to transfer its energy to the shard…" Peridot said as she formed her holographic interface.
"And where should be able to find the core and the… adapter… thingy?" Amethyst asked as Peridot pointed one of her floating fingers towards an Earth's location showed on her interface.
"Here… in one of the few… secret Homeworld's research facilities…" Peridot said as all of the gems looked at each other and nodded.
"Then we're heading there… now… we don't know who's the one who attacked us at the Kindergarten… but I can tell that our assailant knew about those experiments… he knew we would have gone there and set a trap… and if he knew about the experiments… he probably knows about the cluster…" Garnet said as they all walked towards the warp pad.
"Garnet… you don't think he could have guessed our plan…" Pearl said as she placed her hand on her leader's shoulder.
"I can't say it for sure… but… he may be waiting for us…" Garnet replied with a hint of worry.
"Then Steven won't come with us!" Pearl said crossing her arms.
"But… Pearl!" Steven protested.
"No Steven! I'm putting my foot down! We almost lost you on Yellow Diamond's ship, this time we won't take that risk! We don't know anything about that… that… stranger, but he seems to know us and our moves and I-" Pearl said pointing at him, before Garnet stopped her placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Pearl… nothing could happen to Steven… we are in six and we'll all stay together during the entire mission…" Garnet said, as Pearl began to calm down.
"Yeah P, Garnet is right, plus tell me just one thing that is more useful than his shield! He saved our butts back at the Kindergarten…" Amethyst said.
"Well… I… I… ugh… fine… Steven will come… but you have to promise me you'll be careful and that you'll always stay near to us…" Pearl said as they all began to step on the warp pad.
"I promise!" Steven said happily as they all disappeared into the beam of light.