Chapter 12: Our "Heroes"
"Rose Quartz is gone," Garnet says.
"That didn't answer my question, you filthy traitor," Quartz harshly replies, his eye twitching. "Where. Is. She?" They all stand in a deafening silence, awaiting an answer from one of the Crystal Gems.
Finally, Garnet speaks up again, looking down at the ground with a painful grimace, shaking with sadness, "She is…dead."
Quartz's eyes widen. A wicked smile stretches his face, and then maniacal laughter escapes his throat. "Finally! Oh, god, yes!" He falls to his knees, laughing his head off, content with the news he'd just heard. His sister, the one who foiled his plans of forced peace, the one who sentenced him to exile, is dead. And with her dead—Quartz stops laughing, and ponders to himself—there's no one who could stop him from starting all over again. But what about the boy? That boy had Rose's shield, and that's not something anyone can have. How can a human have a gem? How can a human have Rose's gem?
Quartz stands up. He's stopped smiling and bears a grim expression. "She's not dead," he says, "She's in the boy. I need to kill the boy. Give him here." Garnet stands in front of Steven. Amethyst and Pearl follow suit, taking out their weapons together. They will protect Steven with their life. He is their memento of Rose, and he is the last thing that will go even if everything else is destroyed with this upcoming battle. Even if they fall protecting everything they love, Steven will be the one left standing.
Pearl's gem glows. She materializes a holographic version of herself to fight with her and the gems. She summons another spear and hands it the weapon.
"DO YOU WISH TO ENGAGE IN COMBAT?" The hologram inquires.
"Expert mode: Attack and neutralize those two targets! Failure is not an option!" Pearl commands. The hologram says nothing more and obeys its command. It runs towards Quartz with the spear behind it. Garnet bull rushes Amazonite and Amethyst flicks her whip to Quartz's waist. Pearl is going to stay out of this for the time being.
"I've always wanted to fight you, Garnet!" Amazonite exclaims happily, catching both of Garnet's punches in her large hands. "But you're weak! I can beat you without my weapon!" Amazonite flexes her muscles and starts spinning, taking in Garnet with the revolution. The Gem throws Garnet to the top of the hill. She jumps after her.
Quartz backflips out of the way of Amethyst's whip and the thrust of the hologram's spear. He throws his sword at Amethyst. Holo-Pearl deflects it. The weapon spins in the air and lands near Steven. It dematerializes. Quartz tries to summon a new sword, but he isn't going to get that chance. He struggles to dodge the hologram's quick, precise movements. Her thrusts are too fast to keep up with. There are no openings he can see to attack.
"OPENING DETECTED!" Holo-Pearl performs a roundhouse kick to Quartz's side. He stumbles backwards, only to be hit by Amethyst who shape-shifted her leg to an enormous foot. Quartz is launched into the air. With quick thinking, Amethyst grabs Holo-Pearl and throws it in the air. "PREPARE YOURSELF!"
Amazonite catches Garnet in the air, flips her upside down, and pile drives her headfirst into the sand. The impact causes a violent explosion. Amazonite steps out the giant crater after the dust clears. Garnet's been defeated. She walks in the direction of Pearl and Steven. The Gem raises her spear.
A roar echoes in the distance. A giant pink feline attacks Amazonite, ensnaring her in its jaw. The razor-like teeth rips at her jumpsuit and skin, drawing large amounts of green and pink blood. Amazonite tries to pry herself free from the animal's maw. It doesn't work. The Gem's gems on the back of her hands glows and she smashes them together. The light forms a giant light-green hammer that ends in a point on one side. It shines like a crystal in the sunlight. "Off of me, you overgrown cat!" Amazonite smashes the point of the hammer in Lion's side. He releases Amazonite from his jaw only to cry a roar of pain. Amazonite falls. Lion stumbles a little, but he regains himself. Lion sends out several hypersonic roars. Amazonite rolls out the way of each of them, each time getting nearer and nearer to the cat. The Gem, when close enough, swings the flat side of her hammer into Lion. He flies away, landing near the side of the cliff.
Amazonite turns around. She looks at Steven behind Pearl.
"Stay back!" Pearl hollers, pointing her spear. Amazonite raises her hands, dematerializing her hammer.
"I want to talk to the boy," Amazonite says, still walking forward. "Does he know the truth?"
"What truth?" Pearl asks.
"Why you all came here."
"He doesn't need to know!"
"You can't hide the truth from Steven forever, you know."
"We can try!"
"It is his choice," Amazonite looms over Pearl, "to know the truth." She towers over her, even more than Garnet.
"Pearl," Steven says, looking down, "Lapis told me you, Amethyst and Garnet don't care about other Gems." He looks up. "Is that true?"
Hesitantly, Pearl replies, "Not entirely. We do care, Steven, but they think we don't."
"That's lie!" Amazonite snaps. "You and your friends, including Rose Quartz, abandoned your mission given to you in order to protect this planet!"
"They were going to make birthing gardens in the core of the planet! We and Rose couldn't let them wipe out another living world!"
"You are all traitors to the Diamond Authority, traitors to the cause! You four would have preferred our species to die out in order to keep this worthless place alive for no reason other than you following Rose's sense of delusional beauty in everything."
"My mother was not delusional!" Steven shouts, angry that Amazonite would say that about his mother. He doesn't care that they know Rose was his mother. "She saw the beauty in everything, and even in people like you! You don't know anything about her!"
"Steven!" Pearl gasps. Who knows what they'll do to him now that they know he's her son.
"It makes so much sense, now," Amazonite says, squatting down to Steven. "That's why you're part human. Your mother must have mated with a human somehow to make you. But why?"
In the distance, Amethyst takes a hard fall in to the ground, Pearl's spear landing next to her head. Holo-Pearl has been defeated. Quartz lands on the ground, holding his ear. The hologram sliced of a part of his ear and Amethyst's whip cut some of the chainmail on his body. He looks over to Amazonite and walks over.
"Amazonite, what's happening?" Quartz demands.
"This boy is Rose's child," Amazonite says.
"That makes so much sense." Quartz takes out his weapon. "Now, it's time to die."
"Wait! I thought you loved your sister!" Steven cries, holding his hands out.
"I don't love her," Quartz laughs. "You couldn't tell that was a lie? You're a stupid boy. Now stay still." Quartz grabs Pearl's face a throws her away like a ragdoll across the beach so he and the boy can be alone. Steven covers his face as the Gem raises his sword.
Before he can strike, he, Amazonite, and Steven hear the groans and moans of the Crystal Gems. They don't sound like themselves, almost like they're in pain. Garnet stirs in the crater Amazonite left her in. She picks herself up and looks over to her assailant. Her shades are broken, only showing her left and third eyes. Her pupils have retracted and there's purple blood trailing from her nose and mouth that holds a smile that exudes malicious intent. She summons her gauntlets. She flickers out of sight. The dust rises seconds after she moves.
"We're close," Amazonite says. "Brace yourself—" Amazonite is kicked in the air by Garnet, who flickered back into eyesight. She flickers again, moving at an incredible speed. She hammer arms Amazonite into her knee, the Gem's back cracks. Garnet grabs her legs and spins her around. She throws the Gem to the ground. She lands with an explosion of sand. Garnet body slams Amazonite when she hits the ground, bringing up even more clouds of sand.
"Steven…" Pearl struggles to say. Pale blue feathers start to grow out of her skin, covering her entire body. Her nose gets longer and it thickens, covering her mouth as she screams in pain, "RUN!" And then she lets out a caw, like a bird. The feathers on her arms form wings, her legs morph into talons and she takes flight, becoming a bird.
Amethyst gets bigger and starts growing white fur from her purple skin. Her face extends to that of a feline and her whiskers form around the snout. They look like her whip. She roars, baring her sharp, white teeth. Her eyes turn black like obsidian. Her Gem has been corrupted, it being a slightly darker purple than before.
Garnet gets substantially bigger. She roars. Her body disgustingly bulges, her bodysuit becoming a rock-hard body. Garnet's shades fall off, showing all three of her eyes that merges with her afro that covers any trace of her brown skin. The knuckles on her gauntlets become spikes, the fingers sharpen. Her legs mostly stay the same size as she is being supported by her enormous gauntlets. They are her hands and her legs.
"W-What's happening?" Steven starts to tear up, afraid. "What's wrong with them?!
"We corrupted them," Quartz says. "If a Gem fights for too long, they become corrupted and destructive. All of the corrupted Gems you fought before were just like us before the civil war, but they fought too much. We banished the corrupted ones to different planets. Your mother was a part of the Diamond Authority. She was also the one who helped banish them."
"I thought she wanted to help them" Steven says, wiping away his tears. "The Gem said that she tried to heal them."
"You can't heal a corrupted Gem. It's impossible." Quartz grabs Steven's hair and lifts him from the ground. Steven starts kicking and punching, yelling at Quartz to let him go. "You need to die now." Quartz thrusts his sword, but as soon as he does, Steven's gem glows. His defensive bubble surrounds him, making Quartz let go of the boy. "Dammit!" Quartz bellows, striking the bubble with all his might. "Why. Won't. You. Die!"
Amazonite crawls over to Quartz and Steven, making sure Garnet doesn't see her. "It's because Rose is protecting him," she says once she made it over to them. She stands, looking at the corrupted Gems enter Beach City.
Quartz stops hitting the bubble and sighs. She rests his sword on his shoulder. "Fine. Let's go collect those Gems. When we get back to the homeworld, I don't want them to make this planet into another birthing garden."
"Why," Amazonite asks, with suspicion.
"Because I actually like these humans. The boy showed me what potential these people have," Quartz says. He hears people screaming and buildings being destroyed by the Gems in the distance. "I'm going to try to see if the Imperial Gems will leave this planet alone and go to another one."
"You're weak, Quartz," Amazonite says. She steps in front of Quartz. They meet eye to eye. He raises an eyebrow, confused. Amazonite raises her hand and smashes it into Quartz's gem. It cracks. The Gem cries out. His sword dematerializes. He falls to his knees. Amazonite squats down, keeping her hand on his gem. She takes her other hand and lifts his face to meet hers. "The Imperials won't hear you out on this. You will be just like them, the Crystal Gems. They are the weak ones who followed Rose's ideals to the point of becoming the enemies of the Diamond Authority. We are the hunters, the ones who have been given a chance to redeem ourselves for the crimes we committed during the war," Amazonite squeezes Quartz's gem, exacerbating the crack, "and you want to protect these humans? These people don't even know of any other race out in the universe! They are completely ignorant of the interstellar world. If we hollow out this planet, they will not be missed. And neither will you, Smokey Quartz! Goodbye."
"No no no no!" Quartz hollers, fearing for his life.
"You are weak, just like them." Amazonite flexes her muscles, squeezing his Gem with all her might. Steven watches from inside his bubble as Quartz's body starts to fall away in clumps of glimmering crystal dust. His arm falls away, his face horrifically sags, his hair falls out and his body thins down to the point to where it looks like he has a severe case of anorexia. Amazonite squeezes harder and harder at his gem until it completely shatters. Quartz's body crumbles away.
The only thing left of Smokey Quartz is his armor that lies on a pile of glimmering crystal dust.