Chapter 10: The Human and the Gem

Quartz sighs, gingerly patting the meteor. He has a stabbing headache pounding in his head and it's infuriating. He doesn't want to wait to release her, but he must. There's only a certain time where they can complete their plan—tomorrow.

The door to the beach house creaks opens. Quartz looks up, finding Steven walking down the hill. He has something in his hand, gazing up at the sky in it. He takes it down, looking at it with dissatisfaction. The boy looks up, finding Quartz with his forehead resting on the meteor. He stops, unsure of what to do right now. Quartz is in front of him and he might snap again. He may even hurt him. The Gems seem afraid of him, so he should be too, right? Steven begrudgingly allows himself to walk forward towards Quartz who seems to be ignoring him. Steven slowly walks past the male Gem and the meteor. Quartz doesn't look up, but he says, "Human, why do you partner with the Gems?"

Steven stops, a little stunned that Quartz would talk to him. "I-I," he stutters. "Because my dad knows them."

Quartz looks up, eyebrows furrowed. "How?" Steven doesn't want to say. If he said his dad knew his mother, he might yell again. But Steven's reluctance doesn't stop him: "HOW!" He screams, face filled with violent fury. Steven stumbles onto his butt. He looks up at Quartz with an arm to his front.

"Through my mo—Rose," he quietly says, almost saying Rose was his mother. Quartz sucks in a ton of air through his nose and lets out a deep sigh. He doesn't look at Steven the entire time.

"Rose was the only one I cared for in the world." There's a solemn dip in his voice, bruised with the pain of his past memories. "And she betrayed me…"

"I'm sorry," Steven says, unsure of what else to do.

"No you're not, human," Quartz says. "You humans are so focused on yourselves that you can't see the pain in others. You humans are selfish, mind-numbing creatures. You don't need our protection."

"Yeah but, humans are actually great if you get to know them," Steven retorts, standing up. "I have friends here if you want to meet them." Steven pats himself on.

Quartz looks at Steven with narrowed eyes. He has to wait before he can release Amazonite, so why not. He'll let the boy entertain him for the time being. "Fine," Quartz says. "I'll let you show me these humans. But I will leave if I don't like what I see."

"Alright!" Steven exclaims, throwing his arms in the air. Quartz keeps his eyes narrowed, but he admires Steven's quick change of emotions towards him.

Out on the boardwalk, Steven takes Quartz to his favorite place: The Big Donut. "This is where I get donuts from! They come in glazed, chocolate dipped, and my favorite one, spicy!"

"What's…a donut?" Quartz inquires, squinting at the giant donut state atop the building. Steven gasps, squishing his cheeks together with surprise.

"You've never had a donut?! They're like the best thing in the world next to fry bits!" Steven exclaims. "Come on!" Steven pulls Quartz into the donut shop.

Inside, Lars is sleeping on the counter, drooling. Sadie has a cloth and spray to clean up Lars's mess. She turns around, seeing who came in. "Hey, Steven," she says, spraying Lars in the face. He snorts himself awake, flailing his arms around.

"Sadie, what did you do that for?!" He angrily yells, staring down at Sadie. "I was sleeping there."

"And you shouldn't sleep at the counter—where we're supposed to give people their food," she stresses, wiping down Lars's saliva. "So, what did you want Steven?" Sadie turns around, done cleaning. Lars drooled more than expected. She drops her cleaning equipment about gazing at Quartz who stands at the door with his arms crossed. "Who's…Who's your new friend?"

"It's probably another one of his weirdo magic lady friends," Lars says, moving to the back room to go finished his undeserved nap.

"I am most certainly male," Quartz snaps, ironically putting his hands on his hips.

"Well uh, does he want a donut?" Sadie asks, moving behind the counter. She's trying to hide her blushing cheeks. He's cute—hot!

"Yeah," Steven replies. He goes to the window showing all the donuts they have supplied. He rubs his face across the glass, scanning the fried pastries with his hungry eyes. "I'll take a dozen chocolate donut holes and—Quartz, what do you want?"

"Anything," Quartz says.

"And a simple, plain one," Steven continues, "just to start him off." Sadie slides the door open and gathers the donut for Steven, glancing up at Quartz every now and then to get a good look at his face.

They're out of plain donuts. "Hey Lars," Sadie calls, "do we have anymore plain donuts back there?"

"I'm trying to sleep!" Lars shouts.

"Ugh! You're so infuriating!" Sadie stomps into the back. Steven and Quartz wait in front, awkwardly listening to Lars and Sadie's argument.

"Is this what you wanted to show me?" Quartz asks, unimpressed, "Two humans who obviously hate each other arguing because one is unable to fulfill his duties as a service agent here?"

"Sadie and Lars are madly in love," Steven reassures, looking at Sadie's shadow push past Lars's. "They're just having a couple problems right now."

"Uh-huh." Sadie comes back carrying a small box filled with plain donuts. Strands of her are sticking out of her naturally curly hair. There's a grey hair, probably due from stress. She restocks and gives Steven his one, plain donut.

"There you go Steven," Sadie says, handing him the bag of donuts. She looks up at quartz again. He's paying her no mind.

"Thanks Sadie! See you later!" Steven hands Quartz his donut as they leave The Big Donut. He takes it, examining it with disgusted curiosity. He looks at the boy shoveling the donut holes into his mouth one right after the other. Why do humans need to eat so much? Shouldn't a few morsels of food keep them sustained for a day or two? Is that why the boy is so fat? No matter, even though he doesn't need to eat, he'll amuse the boy with the consumption of this…pastry.

Quartz opens his mouth, raising the donut to it. The entire time, Steven is gazing up at the male Gem with starry-eyed anticipation. Quartz takes a bite. He can't swallow it whole, so he mashes it between his teeth. There's an explosion of flavor in his mouth. He starts salivating, a new experience for him just like eating. This is amazing! Why hasn't he ever tried this before?! This sensation, this—

"Uh, Quartz?" Steven asks, eyebrows raised. Quartz stopped moving. His eyes are wide, his mouth is open, drooling and he holds a large smile on his face. He slowly turns to Steven.

"I want more," he says, with a creepy tone. Steven looks down and gives Quartz his donut holes. He snatches them from the boy and wolfs them down like there was no tomorrow. "More."

Steven turns around, looking at the Big Donut. "Okay, then let's go back inside and—" But Quartz is gone when he turns around. Steven hears the click of the door into the shop. And as soon as the door completely shuts, he hears the cries of Lars and Sadie shouting at Quartz as he runs out with entire trays of donuts. His mouth is stuffed with several kinds as well. He looks so happy.

(At the carwash…)

"Okay, since I had to go back and pay for all those donuts," Steven says, eating a donut, "let's go visit my dad—where there's no food." Steven could still see the horrified faces of the Beach City residents when Quartz swallowed donuts whole one right after the other. It was like he was a vacuum.

Steven and Quartz walks up to the carwash. Greg is under the hood. He's missing some sparkplugs. He looks up. "Hey, Steven!" He waves.

"Hey, dad! Look, a new friend!" Steven gestures to Quartz. He looks down at the empty donut tray with a seven-twenty frown. He wants more.

Quartz looks up and squints at Greg. Already he doesn't like him. The boy seems to like him, though. He called him "dad". A term of affection, perhaps? "You, fat human," Quartz says, "who are you to the boy?"

"I'm uh, I'm Steven's father," Greg replies, insulted. He sticks out his hand for Quartz to shake. The Gem doesn't seem to be sure of what to do with the human's extended limb.

"Is that like a term of endearment?"

"Uh, no, it's more on the lines of I created him, in way," Greg replies, "with his mother, Ro—" Greg notices Steven shaking his head and hands. "What."

Quartz looks down at Steven and he stops, looking up. He puts his hands behind his back and whistles nonchalantly. Quartz narrows his eyes.

"Anyway, Steven, who's he?"

"He's Quartz, Smokey Quartz," Steven replies. "He's a Gem like Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl!"

"Oh, so does that, uh, mean he does magic stuff like them?" Greg starts nervously scratching his head. I hope I don't lose my hair because of this guy.

"Yes, I'm magic and stuff like them," Quartz sneers.

The rest of the time there, Greg and Quartz talk while Steven looks through stuff in his father's van. Greg shows stuff about his past life, making sure not to mention Rose on Steven's consent. Quartz never looks it, but he's starting to get interested by human culture. Even though he only remembers the Gem culture before he was exiled, some of the stuff he sees here can be incorporated there.

After Greg, Steven shows Quartz around all of Beach City, and more and more, he becomes less hostile, and even, even though it was a slip of the tongue, he called Steven by his name.

Walking back to the Temple, Steven and Quartz finds Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl standing around the meteor.

"And then it just crystallized the rope," Pearl says, looking up at the rock. "The Gem inside must be alive and sentient. What do you think we do?"

"We fuse into Topaz," Garnet suggests.

"What? Why?" Pearl is taken aback by Garnet's statement. Topaz is adamant and only moves when she needs to do something.

"Her gloves might counteract the crystallization of the meteor," Garnet replies, fixing her shades.

"I mean, if you think that will work, then it's fine by me," Pearl says, skeptical.

"Alright, then let's start." Pearl turns her head to find Quartz walking up to them with Steven. "Steven!" She runs up to the boy and hugs him. "Are you okay?!"

"Yesh, Pearl, I'm fine," Steven says, his voice muffled by Pearl's arm.

"He's fine," Quartz says, glaring at Garnet and Amethyst who are still by the meteor. "If I did something to him, do you really think he'd still be alive? What are you doing to the meteor?"

Pearl picks Steven up, carrying him on her side. "What does it matter to you?"

Quartz wasn't expecting that question. "Nothing," he says quickly. They can't learn of his plans. He could take them out right here, but he needs Amazonite. Not being able to do anything on his own is horrible.

"Then don't worry about it," Pearl scoffs. "Garnet, let's do this."

Pearl puts Steven down into to sand next to Amethyst who has her arms crossed. Quartz stays where he's at and they all watch as Garnet and Pearl fuse.

Pearl runs up to Garnet. She jumps and Garnet catches her and hangs her in the air. When her feet touch the ground, Garnet spins her around as if they were doing a waltz. They separate, Pearl spinning away doing a pirouette. Their movements are quick and precise, somewhat simple and yet complex at the same time. They end with Pearl leaning back in Garnet's arms, Garnet looks down at her.

Crickets.

Pearl and Garnet struggle to keep their balance and they fall on the sand. What's going on? They're supposed to be fusing by now. Pearl rubs her head, glaring at Quartz.

"Why aren't we fusing?" Pearl demands, standing up.

"Because you won't be able to pick the meteor up without breaking it," Quartz replies. He points at the space rock. The Gems and Steven look at it, they all gasp—except for Garnet. There's a crack splitting the meteor through the center.

"What…How come I didn't see that before?" She walks up to it.

"We have to fix it," Garnet says. "That Gem must not get out."

"Why?" Steven says. "Why do we always have to hide from them, like with Peridot?"

Pearl looks at Steven, worried. She can't tell him. He's not ready, and he'll only hate them because of it—hate them and his mother. "We—"

"Because it's for your protection," Garnet says.

"You can't hide the truth from him forever, you know," Quartz says.

"We can try," Garnet attacks. The crack on the meteor moves higher and higher. It looks like it's going to split the rock in half. This isn't good. This is not good. Pearl and Amethyst move to Garnet's position, waiting.

Quartz stares at it with furious surprise. He's internally screaming. What are you doing?! It's too early, you stupid girl! You were supposed to come tomorrow! TOMORROW!

The crack travels to the other side of the meteor, disappearing back into the sand to meet with the start of it.

It glows.

It explodes.

The Gems, Steven, and Quartz are thrown away by the shockwave. Only the silhouette of the Gem can be seen through the dust. She stands. Inside the dust, you can see her arms outstretched to do something. The unknown Gem claps her hands together, forcing the dust away with a large gust of wind. The Gem looks around at the scene: the Gems frightened, Quartz furious, and Steven with mixed emotions.

She is of a thicker, muscular build like Garnet. Her jumpsuit if made up of various hues of light blues and greens, the hair, however, a darkish blue-green. Both of her gems are located on the back of her hands. She wears a pair of tinted shades shaped like a horizontal diamond.

"Quartz," the Gem says.

"Amazonite," Quartz replies.

"Let's do this."