Chapter 7: Breaking Point

"They're gems who were shattered during the Gem war. They need to hide out here for a bit. You guys understand right?"

Lapis and Peridot gave a brief look over Sunagade. From the three eyes that blinked out of sync, to the clashing skin colors that were a reflection of their clothing.

"Why do 'they' look like...that?" Peridot finally asked.

Slightly offended Jade answered "We're right here, first of all. Second, we're a cluster fusion."

Peridot's eyes widened and she shrieked before getting behind Lapis. Raising her arms she summoned several random objects that pointed whatever part of them was sharper at Sunagade.

"Stay back! I have metal powers!"

Feeling threatened Sunagade's body lowered in a defensive stance. Just as Agate started to reach for their gem Steven jumped in between them with his arms waving frantically above him.

"It's okay! They don't want to hurt you!"

"I do."

"Two-thirds of them don't want to hurt you!" Steven corrected.

"Okay..."

Still suspicious Peridot only lowered the objects slightly as she step out from behind Lapis. In response Sunagade eased from their defensive stance and gained a bright smile.

"I'm Jade."

"And I'm Sunstone!"

"Agate."

All the objects completely fell to the floor and Peridot approached them with a new found interest. They all watched as Peridot circled around Sunagade, making detailed mental notes on each feature, before stopping in front of them.

"A Cluster Prototype with actual intelligence. Fascinating. Let me see your gem." She said, motioning for them to match her height.

The right side of their body was forced to comply as the left side got down on one knee. Grabbing their arm Peridot inspected their gemstone from all angles as she ran her thumbs over the surface.

"I've never seen gem shards fit so well together. And even then the Gems assigned to this project were supposed to just randomly slap them together. Whoever did this must have really gotten in trouble for wasting so much time fitting your gem."

Steven nodded to himself as he smiled in satisfaction. This had gone way better than he previously thought and expected. With that in mind he slowly started to walk backwards to the warp pad.

"So, while you guys get to know each other, I'm gonna head back to think of a plan with Amethyst. See you guys later!"

"Bye Steven." Lapis shouted as Steven ran off waving.

Peridot, having finished her examination, stepped back to Lapis's side as she spoke in a more friendly tone.

"So how's the Crystal Gem life? That is if you were Crystal Gems before you were...ya'know..." She asked. Her smile faltering a bit as she made a hand motion over their body.

Jade chuckled. "It's as fun of a ride as it's always been."

"Yup. I regret nothing!" Sunstone added.

"I will never be a Crystal Gem. My loyalty is to my Diamond."

The amused smile Lapis had for the last few minutes instantly fell to a dark scowl. Which went unnoticed as Peridot laughed loudly.

"Give it time."

Sunstone smirked. "You know Peridot. You remind me of our old friend. We called her Peri and you two were the exact same height too!"

"Really? If she was a first era then she must have been a defect."

"Oh she was. But she never let it get her down though. This one time Tourmaline tried to..."

Like all other times, Agate was quick to disengage herself from their conversation. Instead her focus shifted to Lapis, and quickly she noticed something off. It was true that the three of them were now sharing a body, so any look in their direction was mostly meant for all of them. But for some reason Agate had the feeling that the stone cold glare Lapis was holding was meant specifically for her. Looking back to moments ago she realized that Lapis only started glaring after Agate's loyalty to Homeworld was mentioned. Still, she felt the need to experiment on this theory. With her eye looking dead at the Lazuli Agate glared back, challenging her opponent to respond. Indeed Lapis responded by glaring harder and baring her teeth at Agate. Now that Agate had all her proof of hostility she interrupted the current conversation for one of her own.

"Is there a problem?" She asked without any genuine concern.

"I'm sorry" Lapis replied in the same faux tone.

"It's just that I can't help but be a little upset at one of the Gems who trapped me in a mirror and left me to rot on Earth."

It took Agate a full minute until of questioning stares until realization flashed in her eye.

"That's right...You were the Lazuli that we tried to get information out of. By the Diamonds, you were completely useless."

Lapis's eyes widened, which only strengthened the ferocity of her glare. "Excuse me!? You trapped me in that mirror against my will!"

"Only because you were a inept traitor! If anything you should be thanking me for giving you some use."

"Okay...everyone settle down-" Jade said, trying to interject but was figuratively shove back out by Lapis.

"I wasn't even a rebel!"

"Well you should have been with how incompetent you proved to be-"

Before anything else could be said both Jade and Sunstone put a hand over their mouth. There was a moment of awkwardness that followed as the five of them stood there in the newfound silence. Both Peridot and Jade let their eyes wander while Sunstone offered a covered smile to the still infuriated Lapis.

But through the two layers of hands Agate still got one more thing out that was clear as day in the open air.

"I liked it better when you were just a mirror. At least then you didn't speak."

That was the last straw and the last word anyone was able to get out was from Peridot.

"Oh dear..."

A short while later Garnet and Pearl appeared back home on warp pad. Both walking into the main room with Garnet sending the last bubbled cluster off while Pearl scanned the room over. Not looking too much into details, instead looking for a certain forced fusion that still might be in plain sight.

"Great work."

"Garnet I'm going to be completely honest and I say that I did not expect any of that to happen." Pearl replied absentmindedly.

Garnet shrugged and adjusted her shades. "Yeah. Even with my future vision I didn't expect there to be that many either."

"You're back! So...how'd go?" Steven asked as he and Amethyst ran up to them.

"I'm pretty sure that we got all of them" Garnet replied, continuing on a conversation with Steven while Amethyst inched toward Pearl. When she was close enough Pearl bent down and they each held a hand between them to hide their barely audible whispers.

(Where are they?)

(We're hiding them at Peri's.)

(Okay good. But you know Garnet will find out eventually.)

(Yeah. Me and Steven have a plan to ease her into the idea.)

(Alight.)

Clapping her hands together Pearl got everyone's attention as she said "So! How about we-." Pearl shrieked as her eyes fell upon the still demolished counter. The only difference in its appearance being the flimsy amount of clear tape that bridged the two pieces together.

"What happened!"

"It was Suna..." Steven started to say before he realized his mistake.

Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all turned to Steven, two of which were giving him frantic looks from out the other's line of sight.

"...Some-ah...Some-ah crazy ah-pizza pie." He corrected, using a fake Italian accent for added effect.

Amethyst and Pearl let out pained, yet relief filled groans while Garnet smiled.

"Well. It must have-"

They all stopped dead when the sound of crashing waves surprised all of them. Looking behind them they saw Sunagade standing on the warp pad surrounded by puddles of water. They were soaking wet and currently being blinded by their hair draped and poking into their eyes. Unable to see all the mixed looks of horror and worry on everyone's face while they stepped off and walked into the room.

"Steven, Lapis said we can come back as long as Agate promises not to talk." Sunstone impassively said.

"So that basically means we can never come back." Jade deadpanned.

The three rung out their hair a bit before tossing it to the side and looking at the others. The moment they made eye contact with Garnet everyone knew it was all over. Garnet's face was one of the ones that had fallen to horror, which was mirrored by Sunagade until the rage that exploded from Agate forced their expression into one of pure anger.

"You!" Agate snarled.

Jade refused with all her might not to move her foot. But that didn't matter as Agate simply dragged their half of the body in her mission to get close to Garnet, who started fearfully backing away.

"You're the reason this whole stupid mess happened in the first place!"

Steven, Amethyst, and Pearl were too stunned to move. Now forced to become an audience to a show they didn't want to watch, but were equally not brave enough to intervene in.

"I heard about that Sapphire's prediction and how some Ruby managed to break fate. Showing that other gems can be fused together. Giving Homeworld the idea of force fusing gems like me!"

"Agate, that's enough" Jade tried to interject, only to be ignored as Agate continued.

"It was you! You, that accursed Rose Quartz, and your broken accessory that ruined everything!"

"Agate please! Calm down!" Sunstone tried, only to be met with the same results.

In a last ditch effort Jade swung her foot around and wrapped it around the table leg. The table only ended up getting dragged along as Agate continued her hop over to the slowly tearing up Garnet. Who, in her panicked state of mind, had fallen over and started backing away on her hands and knees. Which only made Sunagade standing over them even more threatening.

"Do you even realize the damage you've done to your own kind?! So many gems died! Even more were corrupted!"

"Agate!" Jade shouted, tears of her own starting form.

"And because of you I'M STUCK LIKE THIS WITH THEM!"

"AGATE SHUT UP!"

Both Jade and Sunstone's hands grasped tightly over their mouth, reducing any other sound they could make into nothing but muffles. That was until Agate opened their mouth wide and bit down hard on Sunstone's hand. Jade reflexively smacked them in the face while Sunstone forced their arm away as they took several steps back.

That was it for Agate and any remains of her reasoning was shattered.

"I can't take it anymore!" She screamed.

Reaching over to their gem she pulled out the spiked ball, her third of the weapon, and held it up high. Getting some form of a grip by weaving her fingers through the chain as a make-shift handle.

"If being shattered means finally being free of you two then so be it!"

Jade and Sunstone's eyes widened. "Agate stop! Don't" Jade pleaded. She tried to reach up and stop Agate only to find her arm fighting her command.

Just before Agate could bring down the spiked ball she suddenly froze, the ball falling out of her hand and putting a deep dent into the floorboard. All of their eyes were wide as pain shot through their body. They looked down to the source, it being the blade of a dagger plunged deeply into their chest. Held shakily by an orange hand that, despite the blade cutting into it's fingers, held it firmly in place.

"Agate...we need t'talk." Was all Sunstone had a chance to say before they were engulfed in smoke and their gem fell to the floor.

For a moment silence fell upon the room. Garnet then suddenly let out a pained cry as she grabbed her head before a light enveloped her. Her outline of her formed changed to a blue and red, wobbled, then roughly split into two. Ruby and Sapphire were thrown the ground, a stream of tears going down both their faces. They sat up and looked at each other, Sapphire moving her hair from in front of her eye to show the expression of shock she shared with Ruby.

"Ruby..." Sapphire said softly.

Ruby's tears fell more heavily before she squeezed her eyes shut and blindly took off to the warp pad.

"Ruby wait!" Sapphire called, quickly getting up herself to try and chase up after her.

Just as Ruby was about to be transported away Sapphire leaped and collided with her. They were both gone in a flash, leaving the others who were still frozen from witnessing the scene. Finally after another long moment of no one knowing what to do, Pearl stepped up. Walking over to Sunagade's gem she picked it up and was just about to bubble it when Steven stopped her.

"Pearl, wait!" He called, running in front Pearl.

"Just give them some time. Like Sunstone said they just need to talk."

Pearl looked unconvinced. But it was the pleading look on Steven's face that made her give in with a sigh and hand over the gem. Steven held the gem to his chest with cuffed hands. Looking down at it's misshapen form with a now sadden look born from this entire circumstance.

"They just need to talk it out."