Back Home
Steven was happy for once with a smile on his face flashing all of his pearl whites. Connie's hand was still in his as he pulled her over to the warp pad, once both of them were firmly on the mantle there was a loud whirring sound. A flash of bright sky blue surrounded us, his stomach always felt like he lost it back down at the Temple. They landed on the other warp pad some ways from the barn, he looked over at Connie and she didn't seem too happy to be here. He could tell that she was faking her smile, he felt guilt for pulling her along with him. He just wanted her to loosen up a bit become more of a "bad girl" she knew she was deep inside.
They didn't hold hands for very long as she pulled away from him, he felt sad. His Connie used to love holding hands with him wherever they went. The walk was quiet, few words here and there, and some humming from her. A song he couldn't recognize, "What song is that?" He asked her and she stopped humming and looked at him like he asked the wrong question. "Did I ask something wrong?"
She shook her head and looked down, "No ... it's just the song I am humming ... is ours …" she paused trying to find the right words. He wasn't her Steven and she knew that, but she didn't want to be rude either. "It's the one Steven and I used to sing when things got rough. Do you think you'll ever switch bodies back?" She had asked him.
He had the urge to tell her that they will, but he didn't know the answer to that one. He was scared to go back home, he didn't want to be treated like he was some type of monster. And he didn't want to go back to his old ways. Here you feel like the part of the family, they were never too busy for you. He shrugged his shoulders as they made it to the barn, barking came from behind the double wooden barn was different from his back at home, the paint was chipping here, there was no truck in the yard, there were things sticking out of the roof. Pulling open the massive door with the help of Connie, whatever was barking behind there came running out towards him.
It was a size of a medium pumpkin, well, it was a medium pumpkin once he got a good look at it. Its eyes were made from pumpkin seeds and his mouth looked like it was carved in there. The tail was a stem wagging as it barked at him. It was slightly creepy looking as he backed up away from it. The pumpkin started to growl and followed him."Get the hell away from me ..." He snapped at it as his leg went back then forward to kick it, he had accidentally tripped over something falling backwards. His head was throbbing as the world spun around him. He groaned as something heavy jumped on his stomach, but it wasn't as bad of an impact as if he was in his regular body. The smell of pumpkin guts filled his nose and he wanted to gag as something slimy started to lick his face. When he opened his eyes again, the world had stopped spinning, but his vision was a bit blurry. Blinking a few times, he regained his composure to look up at the pumpkin that was just barking at him now.
Connie giggled, it was a beautiful sound to his ears, as she picked up the pumpkin off his chest. "Aw, seems like she likes you, Steven." She smiled as she held the thing in her hands. Its a girl? A pumpkin can have a sex? He started to shake his head as he got himself up, "Are you okay? Did you hit your head? Maybe we should go back to the temple now to get it checked out." Connie asked as she let down the pumpkin to help steady him. Maybe she really didn't want to be here. He sighed, he shouldn't have made her come with him.
"I'm fine, and no we do not." Looking around, the pumpkin had disappeared and faint voices were heard inside of the barn. "Let's go in there." He told her as he wobbled himself over that way to the open barn doors, his back was aching but it wasn't bad. Inside was what you would call a pig stein, there was stuff everywhere, things on display, there was a fish tank with a creepy alien doll floating about. A TV was blaring loudly in a corner, turning his head in that direction, he saw the truck that is usually out front in the barn now rusting and peeling paint. There were blankets and pillows in the bed, with a TV on the door of the bed, Lapis and Peridot was snuggled up together watching what sounded like Camp Pining Hearts.
Where were the bedrooms? Where was Matt supposed to sleep when he doesn't want to go back to the temple after a fight? Where was Matt supposed to go to get away from Pearl when she was nagging at everyone? "What the hell is going on with this mess? What the hell is this?" He picked up a smashed recorder, then put it down as it tried to spark at him "Why the hell is the barn in such a mess?" He had to be careful not to step on anything as the two of them made their way towards the truck with the two gems inside the bed.
The green gem jumped up away from Lapis and crawled her way over to the edge of the bed, she was tiny, and weird looking from the Peridot he knew back home. Her voice was more of a high pitched nasal version his Peridot. Her eyes narrowed behind her visor as she stared at him, "Do not come any closer than that." she said a little slow, he stopped and Connie ran into him. "You seem different ... turn around and walk back where you came from. I need to see something." He narrowed his eyes back at her before he turned around and started to walk. "Okay, stop. Now come back." He made a low growling sound getting impatient as he turned and walked back. "Lapis, do you see something wrong with him?"
Lapis jumped out of the truck and walked over to him, she was different from his Lapis too. She wasn't as fit as her, she wasn't wearing her normal workout clothes. She was wearing blue blouse and skirt, it was weird for him. She looked at him up and down before spinning Steven around making him a bit dizzy. "Yeah, this isn't our Steven." She pushed him away from her making him fall back onto his butt, all sudden he was lifted in the hair with a giant fist made of water squeezing the air right out of him "Who are you and what did you do with our Steven?"
"L-Lapis, let him down. Let me explain." Connie had grabbed Lapis' arm, Lapis looked at her and shook her head. "Okay, this isn't our Steven, they somehow switched places, he is from another universe, or time dimension. What I am trying to say is that somehow there are two Stevens that had switched bodies, one went to our universe while the other went to his universe." Lapis let Steven go with a hard thump, he was soaking wet and miserable. Connie ran over to him, helping him up on his feet, he looked over at Lapis, his nose was up and his mouth curved to the side like Steven was going to make a snarling nose. "Hey, it's going to be okay, Steven. They didn't know if you were a threat or not."
"It doesn't matter if they thought I was a threat or not. Look at me, I am the exact replica of your Steven, nothing is different about me. What made you think I was freaking different for you to attack me?!" He growled out trying to get into the face of Lapis who looked at him dumbfounded, she was not interested in what he had to say. Then Peridot stood in front of him, they were the same height and it as weird as hell.
"Actually, you are not the exact replica of our Steven." She said matter of fact, "You have multiple things different about you. One, you walk like you are vastly superior than everyone else. Our Steven walks like he is holding the world on his shoulders, and he is what is that earth word..." She paused trying to think of the word.
"Shy?" offered Connie.
"Yes, shy. Second, you have a scar right above your right eye, it's faint, but noticeable. Our Steven does not have that as he rarely gets scars on his body from anything. Third, you talk differently from our Steven, almost like you are holding in a lot of pain behind your mask." Peridot put her hands on her hips, and grinned at him like she was proud of herself. "Fourthly, you acted like you have never seen the barn this way your whole life." He made a disgusted face, rolling his eyes.
"How the hell do you even get that from looking at me for a minute? How observant are you of your Steven?" He was barely here a few minutes and it took only a little to determine the fact that he wasn't their Steven. "Okay, whatever never mind then. Where do you guys sleep? Where does Matthias sleep here?" He knew the gems told him they didn't know who this Matthias was, but the look in their eyes told him different. So, now he was going to ask these two and see what they know.
"Who's Matthias?" Asked Lapis.
Peridot, Lapis and Connie all looked at him like he was stupid. He felt stupid after asking that, his hand shot out behind him to rub his neck. "Um, he is a tourmaline gem. My best friend, he lives in the temple and sometimes here."
"Tourmaline gem? Male?" Peridot looked at him before she started to laugh hard. "I haven't seen a tourmaline gem since they all poofed almost five hundred years ago. And a male one at that? You really must be losing it, Steven #2." She wiped the tears away from her eyes as he stared at her. They were all poofed? What was she talking about?
"Peri, what do you mean by that?" Connie asked. She sounded genuinely curious, but her face showed something like she was in horror of what she just heard. His blood started to rush in his veins, and his heart started to pump wildly in his chest as he waited for Peridot to answer Connie.
"Well, how about I show you instead?" Peridot grabbed ahold of Lapis' hand, "Come with me?" Lapis looked like she thought about it for a second before nodding, hand in hand they followed the two out of the barn and the mile down the hill to the warp pad. By the time he got there, he wanted his body back at least he learned to take care of himself than the other one. He was never huffing and puffing like this, not since he was twelve, that was when he was starting to grow in his gem powers and train more.
They stepped onto the wrap pad and was shot up in the air, when he opened his eyes they were somewhere dark, tree surrounded them in every corner. Where were they? Lapis and Peridot started to walk forward, with a quick glance at Connie they had followed them. The forest seemed limitless, thick, and rich, as he looked up and around. He could name most of the trees. Ash, Oak and elm were a few, they had allowed adequate light to pass down on them. Down at their feet was a collection of mushrooms, and in front of them were vines that clung to most of the trees, and a medley of flowers which he have never seen anywhere, but here. A mixture of noises, belonging mostly to birds and vermin, resonated through the air, and were strangely synchronized with the rustling of the leaves and branches of the tree tops in the wind. This place gave Steven goosebumps and he didn't like it that much, he thought that they were going to a kindergarten or someplace different.
Was this worth wondering what happened to all the tourmaline? "This forest is called the Land of Whispers, I have been here twice before to learn more about the plant that the great diamond authority wanted so bad." Peridot was whispering as they walked, it was hard to hear from all the other noise that was around them.
"Why is it called the Land of Whispers?" he asked her, he have never heard anything like this in his universe. Maybe his moms were hiding something from him. When he gets home, he was \ going to ask about it. If he did ever get home that is. He wonder if they even had something like this there. Peridot stopped alongside Lapis, she turned and covered her lips with her finger. She then pointed to her ears and cupped them like she was trying to tell them to listen. He looked at Connie who had looked at him, they both held their breaths, not making a sound as they listen to the cries of the forest.
Behind the mixture of noises that belonged to the birds and vermin, there were agony cries that were softer than a whisper. He could locate different languages they were speaking, English, Arabic, Spanish, Alien languages, and hundreds of more. Once he focused his attention to the sounds, they were gone replaced with the normal sounds of the forest. "Who is making those voices?" He asked in horror. Peridot looked at him, a small smile on her face, He couldn't tell if the smile held remorse underneath or not. He couldn't tell what her eyes were saying as she was wearing her visor over them.
He watched Lapis as her face screwed up in pain and tears welled up her eyes. Her hand went to her mouth covering it as she shook on her legs, Peridot and Connie had to hold her up. "This forest ... it's a burial ground for gems ... those sounds you hear are the gems that lost their lives in the war." He walked over to her and put his hand on her arm. "Peridot, why did you take us here?"
"The forest isn't where I wanted to take you all. The forest is just where the closest warp pad is to where I do want to take you. Are you okay enough to go further with me?" He was getting bad vibes from the forest; his mind won't stop trying to focus in on the voices. Usually, he grew to not care about things like this, but some reason his heart aches as he heard the voices cry out to him. Connie seemed to stay away from Steven the whole time, they were waiting for Lapis to calm down, when they started to walk again, it was the same thing. She didn't seem to like him as much as she liked the other Steven. Maybe he was to of a dick to her?
Steven managed to get in front of them so he can hold the branches for the others, by the time it was my turn to go, he wasn't fast enough for the branches, so he was getting cut up. His face was stinging, and bugs were swarming him, he just wanted to go home. He soon saw a clearing some little ways in front of them. His spirits were lifted as he ran past the others before falling to his knees as he saw was an opened field. Groaning, he looked behind him. "HOW MUCH FURTHER?" He called, his voice sounded like he was whining towards their way.
"Shush, Steven would have never whined. And we are here." Peridot narrowed her eyes as she walked up and around him, she stopped to put her hand into the open air. Soon, he realized that it wasn't an open field as her hand laid flat against something. The whole scenery was flickering in front of them, making a whining noise. The ground shook beneath their feet as a loud sound like a blast of some sort almost broke through his eardrums. Once he opened his eyes back up after the blast, what was in front of him was not an open field. In place was an ancient gem colony ship that looked like a flying saucer. He has never seen one in person, but he he seen pictures and heard about them from his moms.
He stood up and walked to the flying saucer, it was made of a dull gray, stone-like material with three legs. It was wrapped in overgrown vegetation from thousands of years being undisturbed. He watched as Connie put her hand on the cool rough stone, her eyes were wide with anticipation from what would come inside. Peridot motioned them back as she typed something into the keypad where she just had her hand at before. Steam radiated off the ship as the huge stone door fought to be lifted for what it seemed liked in decades, dust also flew everywhere making him cough up his lungs.
Once the doors were open and the dust cleared, all four of them started inside almost like they were waiting for something to come out at them. When nothing happened, he took a step forward followed by the others. Inside of the ship it was more stone, but paintings were everywhere. "This is one of the last ships to land on planet Earth. A hundred years before the war had ended, I have taken you here because there is a device somewhere in this ship that will help me explain what happened to the tourmalines better." Peridot shrugged as she walked into the middle of the ship, they followed cautiously.
He stepped away from the group to look around at the walls where the paintings were. Most of them were paintings of the diamond authority. "You know ... I do not support the diamond authority at all, but I found it sad when I heard that Yellow Diamond shattered White." After a few seconds, he noticed it was quiet, he turned around slowly to see the others staring at him. "What is it? Did I say something wrong?" Peridot walked over to him slowly, when she got here she grabbed my shirt and pulled me into her.
"What do you mean, Yellow Diamond shattered White?"
"Did it not happen here? Yeah, it was before I was born though. My mom, Rose, she would use to tell me bedtime stories about the Gem War. My other mom, Pearl, she would make out the scenes with holograms. Rose was there ... she saw how Yellow Diamond felt like White had betrayed her. White wanted the earth to be saved because it was such a beautiful place, while Yellow and Blue wanted to colonize it to make more gems. I used to have nightmares with the images in my head, but then they got to a point where it intrigued me more than scared me." He shrugged like it was no big deal, but apparently it was a big deal to them.
"That makes no sense!" Peridot said frustration. "As much as a clod Yellow Diamond is, she would have never ever shatter one of her sister diamonds before." She threw up her hands and yelled by the time she was done she looked over at me again. "In this universe, Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond, she got so fascinated by the beauty of Earth that she gave herself a false identity to rebel against the Diamond Authority. No diamond has ever been shattered and not like another Diamond would shatter their own in the first place. That gem you have is Pink Diamond. The war had ended shortly afterwards. This still makes no sense at all." He was taken back by this thought. How could his mother ever do something like that? How could his mother even be a diamond.
He shook his head, denying this, he wasn't going to say it, but it was obvious that he didn't believe it. "Can we just go find where we learn about the tourmalines please?" Peridot looked flustered before nodding, she motioned the other two to follow them down the long narrow hallways of the ship. It seemed like hours, but it was only about ten minutes before they even found the room they were looking for. Lapis and Connie were the most untalkative persons he knew, especially on this trip, they barely spoken two words. Going down one last narrow strip of hallway, they had found the room they were looking for. In the middle of the room was a huge electric panel, with a bunch of bottoms and one flashing red light.
Peridot ran over there excited, she got to work that second to see if anything was wrong with the panel. There were more paintings on the wall, "I remember the war ..." Whispered Lapis who stood next to him staring at the walls as well. "I could never get it out of my head, it was terrible. I lost so many gems that I had called my family and friends, I ended up in a mirror when the other Homeworld gems fled." He could tell it was hard for her to talk about this, so it was one of the reasons why he didn't understand the meaning of why she was trying to tell him all of it. "I was more of a messenger gem sent down to Earth, I was not much of a fighter, but I did work with tourmalines of all sizes. Every single one of them were different from their counterpart. Every single one of them were hard headed and strong. They believed that fighting for homeworld was an honor, they loved their diamonds fiercely. They thought if they fought hard enough they were become higher in status. There was this one specific gem … I remember them ..."
Lapis wanted to tell him more, but was interrupted by Peridot who was shouting in glee. Their heads turned towards the sound, and the bright lights that were flickering. Peridot was now sitting in the chair that had sprouted up from the ground in front of the panel. "Come here, let me tell you the story of the Tourmalines." They gathered around Peridot as she pushed some buttons to project a hologram image in front of them. "It was years ago; all the tourmalines were divided up between Pink and Blue. They were messengers, soldiers, high ranking officers, some replaced quartz as bodyguards for the diamonds if they did well in their strengths. Some were technician like Peridots."
On the screen showed images of Tourmaline gems in lines, flickering through images of them doing various things. There were so many different colors, so many different sizes and shapes. There were black, blue, green, and pink. Some were two colors, not one of them looked the same. "Some were even servants like Pearls, but treated a little better than they were. When the war had started there were thousands of them, by the middle there were less than a thousand, and by the end there were only a handful. Once Pink Diamond was "shattered" by Rose how the story goes, the other Rose Quartz were bubbled as well. The tourmalines started to act out, they started rebellions on Homeworld, causing trouble for everyone. It was mostly Pink Diamonds tourmalines that did that. Blue wanted to keep her Tourmalines, but they reminded her too much of Pinks and they were deemed too unstable. So, she had them all bubbled, some were destroyed as they also tried to rebel. No one knew exactly why they were doing this." The images that flashed were gems acting up, destroying things, they were destroying each other. "No other tourmalines were ever seen again."
"You know ... you could have told us all this back in the barn ..." Connie mumbled, and Steven had to agree with her, but he was shocked to even make a noise as he watched the battles and bubbling of Tourmalines. Peridot shrugged her shoulders as she pressed more buttons.
"I brought you here because there might be a way to bring you back to your universe and get our Steven back. I am not stupid, I do know that I could have told this at the barn, but from the technology on this ship I can probably build something. That is until I see what data they have in this database through. A lot of gem technology have this receivers that send out signals to be updated with new data. So, if I can just hack into the base I can see if we can send you back." This was just plain stupid, He ran my hand through his hair and turned his body, something in the corner of his eye caught his attention.
The tail end of a cloak disappeared behind something. "HEY WAIT!" he called out, and dashed after them. He heard the others yell at him and heavy footsteps following. The hallways were dark and were narrowing as they went further in the ship. His lungs were starting to burn and his face was hot as sweat dripped down his face and on his shirt. He stopped at a corner leaning against the wall he bent down, watching the sweat drip down his nose on the ground. He stood up straight to watch as a cloak disappeared in a space on the ceiling. "Come back here! I want to talk!"
"Steven!" Connie's voice was loud over her own footsteps and his breathing, she grabbed his shoulder once she made it to him. "Why did you run off like that?" She asked, she looked where he was looking just in time to see something red drop down out of the hole. Everything felt like it was in slow motion, one minute he saw a fiery blast the next he was holding his breath in a water bubble. He didn't know how long it was, it could have been only seconds, but it felt like minutes. The bubble popped, splashing water everywhere as Connie and him landed on the ground with a thump.
"Are you two okay?" Lapis asked crouching down in front of them, her expression was worrying. He couldn't answer as he was still trying to get air down in his lungs. "What just happened?"
"We are not alone on this ship. Whoever it is, they do not want to be discovered." He told Lapis once he had regained his composure. He helped Connie up, "Maybe we should get back to where Peridot is."
"Where is that, exactly?" Asked Connie.
They looked at Lapis who shrugged. "Are you saying we are lost?" He asked them.
Just their luck. Steven looked around, they got into a dead end and the only way out was through the vent or towards where they came from. He wanted to know who the being was, maybe he could be able to get through the vent and try to find them. "Lapis … this is a stupid idea, but I want to keep following the being. Can you bring us up to the vent? If any dangers happens, I am here, Connie has moms sword, and you are here. I want to know what their attitude towards us is for." Lapis thought about it long and hard, she looked at Connie to see if she was up for it. The child only shrugged. Lapis didn't like it on the ship, but she also wanted to know who the other being was here, and before Peridot who was alone gets hurt. She nodded and helped them into the vent before following them.
They crawled as the space were getting tighter and tighter, when it was to tight for them to get through anymore, Steven looked down, "Move back a bit." He said and they did. Underneath them was another vent opening that lead down to an open room, he had seen movement down there. He motioned them to go back a little move, and with a tight squeeze, he positioned himself so his legs were in front of him. He kicked at the vent and with one final thrust he kicked the vent down. He made a loud crashing noise without a second thought he jumped down and landed on his knee. The others followed suit.
They were in some sort of laboratory, it was quiet and cold as a morgue. Even the great machines lay silent. A thin film of dust lay on everything. On inspection he found that even the computer had been formatted and the filing cabinets were empty. But curiously some of the personal effects of the scientists had been left carelessly lying around, like they'd left in a hurry and somehow not thought to take their belongings. It was eerie. What had happened to them? There was movement in the corner of the room as he looked he was barely able to see anything in the dimly lit laboratory. Every footfall echoes around, not loudly, but enough to give away their position to anyone who happens to be concealed in here. For a moment he consider skirting around the edges, then he stop - stop moving, stop breathing, while his heart speeds up to olympic sprinter rate. What he had thought to be a movie theatre sized screen in the corner of where he heard the sound was nothing of the sort
In that suspended moment, a fraction of a second drawn out to infinity, his brain offers an explanation and yet rejects it simultaneously. This is the stuff of science fiction, of movies, of horror. The "television" is a tank of murky liquid. There was something inside of it that he didn't know what, and he didn't want to know what either. Whoever this being was that they were following, they were doing some evil shit. "Hey, I know you're over there. Come out, we don't want to hurt you."
Someone walked out from behind the tank, they were not able to tell her face as a black cloak hoodie covered it. The cloak was departed to show a brownish tunic with long sleeves, brown trousers that goes down to the mid of her leg and black combat boots. In her two hands were what looked like to be two pistols, without thinking Steven summoned his shield. It grew large enough to block the three of them, "Who are you? And why are you here?" Her voice sounded familiar to Steven as she spoke up.
Steven watched as Connie unsheathed his mother's sword, and was ready to fight just in case if they needed too. "I am Steven Quartz, this is Connie, and Lapis Lazuli. We are no danger to you, we were taken here by our friend Peridot to show us the destruction of Tourmalines and to help me try to get home. Who are you? Why are you in this ship?" The person in front of us slowly put down her guns, one disappeared, but the other remind in her hand. The figure slowly removed her hoodie and showed her face. Steven gasped as he recognized who she was, she was the gem that was trapped in the necklace and helped him to this universe. "I know who you are. You are Zahara Apatite."