CHAPTER 21: A SECOND CHANCE

"I… I can't trust her yet… but I trust you Steven…" Jet said, her halberd disappearing as Steven sighed in relief.

"Thank you… and don't worry! Peridot is very cool! Here… ehm Peridot? Could you… put away your blaster?" Steven asked as he noticed that Peridot had her blaster ready to shoot, her hand slightly shaking and her eyes wide.

"Oh… Oh! R-right… I'm… I'm sorry…" Peridot muttered as she lowered her weapon and stayed behind Steven as he walked towards Garnet and Jet.

"So… Peridot… this is Jet… she's really cool and strong… and you don't have to be afraid… she just wants to protect me… and Jet… this is Peridot… she's really, really smart and really cool too… she was a Homeworld technician but when we got closer I could clearly see that she wasn't bad at all… she was just scared and then we became friends. She's one of us and she also want to protect me!" Steven said happily as Jet crossed her arms and scoffed slightly.

"Don't think you can fool me technician… I know the ones like you… you think you're above all other gems because of your intelligence… but you are the weakest kind of gem… and I'm not talking simply about your physical form… if something threatens you… you won't hesitate to reveal how coward you all are… if it meant to live… you would turn your back to any of your allies... you may be able to fool Steven… he proved to be even too much comprehensible with you… but you won't fool me… a pathetic gem like you would never fight against a stronger enemy just to protect someone else… especially if that enemy is Homeworld… I've seen it before… you only care about yourself… you are a disgusting-" Jet was cut off by Peridot, who surprisingly walked in front of her and poked her on the chest with one of her digits, which made Jet's eyes widen.

"Shut up! You don't know anything about me! About what I did! I sacrificed everything I had to save Steven! I would have died for him! What I did in the past it doesn't matter! The only thing that matters is the present and right now… I… am… here to protect him! And I won't take insults by the likes of you! Who do you think you are?! You're just an experiment! You're nothing more than a prototype for a Homeworld's weapon! I bet it would take just a snap of fingers from Yellow Diamond to make you turn against Steven!" Peridot cried angrily as Jet grabbed her digits.

"Why you little-" Jet said raising her fist, although she was pretty surprised, this Peridot, this Peridot was different from the others she had met, she was… strong… brave… talking like that to a warrior… and it couldn't be stupidity… since… well… we're talking about a Peridot… so it must have been really courage… which she respected…

"Guys please! Stop! You're nothing like those things you said!" Steven said separating… well trying to separate the two…

"Take back what you said technician! It doesn't matter how many fancy tools you have in your arms! I'll reap them off you and I'll crush you anyway!" Jet cried as Steven stood in front of her, arms around her legs trying to hold her, while Garnet did the same with a now fuming Peridot.

"I'll show you how much of a coward I am!" Peridot screamed until Garnet spoke… and when her turn to yell came… no one dared to breath.

"ALRIGHT THIS IS ENOUGH YOU TWO! I SWEAR YOU'RE WORSE THAN AMETHYST AND PEARL AND I'M NOT EXAGERATING! NOW YOU TWO WILL STAY QUIET UNTILL WE'LL GET HOME AND THEN YOU WILL SOLVE THIS CALMLY! DID I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!" Garnet yelled pointing towards the two gems who fell silent, Jet had her eyes fixed on the ground while Peridot was trembling, hidden behind Steven and no one dared to speak until they reached home.

"Garnet? Are you… ok?" Steven asked as Garnet sighed heavily.

"Yes Steven… don't worry… just… keep an eye on those two… I don't want to have to yell at them another time…" Garnet said as she kneeled down and kissed Steven's forehead.

"Goodnight Steven…" She whispered as Steven giggled.

"Ooook guys… just… make yourself comfortable for the night… I guess… yawn… it's time for me to go to bed…" Steven said as he reached his bedroom and tugged himself under the covers.

"Good night Peridot… good night Jet…" Steven murmured as he fell into a deep sleep, exhausted by the rough day.

Neither of the two gems said anything to each other for what it seemed to be hours, Jet remained seated on the couch inspecting Peridot, who leaned against the counter with her arms crossed, trying to avoid the cluster gem's eyes. After some minutes… Jet stood up and headed for Steven's bedroom, which alarmed Peridot, who, needless to say, didn't trust the gem. As soon as Jet reached the stairs for his bedroom, Peridot began to follow, but she became less tense as she saw Jet slowly sitting down on Steven bed's edge, looking at him with a look of confusion on her face.

"Steven?" Jet called as Peridot quickly reached her and moved her finger in front of her mouth.

"Shhhh! You clod you're going to wake him up!" Peridot whispered as Jet gave the green gem a look of confusion.

"What?" Jet asked lowering her voice.

"Steven is an hybrid between a gem and a human… part of his body can't be sustained by his gem like us… he needs to feed himself and to sleep…" Peridot explained.

"It's… strange… leaving yourself this exposed… it's dangerous…" Jet said as Peridot's expression softened.

"Yes… yes it is… but… watching him when he's like this… so peaceful… he makes me… forget about the things which scare me… and… I think he's so calm because… he knows that he's surrounded by people who loves him… I didn't understand how much of a waste my life was until I met him… it was just following orders fearing what they could have done to me… can you belive that I actually felt pride when my superiors didn't punish me because I managed to accomplish one of their tasks… even if I had never received a single compliment from them… I was just grateful to them for being alive… but now is different… I won't ever go back… Steven gave me a chance for a new life and I won't let it go to waste…" Peridot said cracking a slight, sad smile, as Jet looked at her in surprise, she never saw such

"I… I didn't know a Homeworld's gem could understand this kind of things… especially a Peridot… but… I was wrong… I'm… sorry if I tried to hurt you earlier… I just wanted to protect him…" Jet said extending a hand towards the green gem, who looked at her in disbelief, before composing herself.

"I guess… I should apologize too for the way I talked to you… it was unnecessary to insult you… I… I just didn't want to stand in front of a gem and take her insults staying silent anymore… I'm done with that life…" Peridot said taking Jet's hand.

"I guess Rose was right… everyone deserve a second chance…" Jet whispered as she looked at Steven, who, unbeknownst to Jet and Peridot, was awake and heard everything…

"Everyone deserve a second chance…" Steven thought as he slowly drifted to sleep again.

Hello guys we hope you have enjoyed this new chapter, I published this chapter earlier because in these days we'll work on chapter number twentytwo and it will be a really speacial chapter, it'll be twice if not three times longer than the others chapters and something I think you'll like really much will happen, so don't worry if for some days you won't see any chapters published. Untill next time guys! Bye!