Chapter 11, coming from Kevin.
I don't own Steven Universe.
Chapter 11: Beasts
Pink walked carefully along the facility's path, most of the soldiers with her were in the front and walking ahead to check for danger and scout ahead. Only Amethyst remained behind Pink to check for dangers coming up from behind. She was surprised at this, usually she and Flint were inseparable, but ever since they'd gotten off Igon they both seemed distant.
The Diamond leaned down just enough for Amethyst to hear her. "Hey Amethyst." She whispered.
The purple gem looked up to her, her attention momentarily torn from her duty. "Yes?" she replied back in the same hushed tone.
"You seem distracted, are you okay?" Pink asked.
"I'm doing well, my Diamond. I appreciate your concern." She answered back.
Pink didn't like that, that sort of response sounded too automated. It was as if she'd been expecting the question and answered it before she even asked.
"Are you sure?" Pink asked.
Amethyst said nothing in return.
"Because you just seem…"
"My Diamond!" Amethyst said a little louder than she meant to, surprising her and gaining attention from some of the other gems. They all stopped and stared at Amethyst who looked away. "It's nothing."
The Diamond had the courtesy to simply drop it and walked on, perhaps she should-
"Hold up!" came a voice from the front, one she recognized as Flint's.
"What is it?" Pink asked as she stepped by the gems in front of her until she saw what had stopped them. A large root had pried through from the ceiling and gnarled and twisted its way along the path in front of them.
"These are thick, shouldn't be too much of a problem though." Flint said as she summoned her sword. She swung and the blade bit hard into the bark.
Pink felt a howl of pain radiating outwards and nearly fell to her knees. "What? Where-?"
Flint turned around in astonishment at her Diamond's sudden discomfort. "Boss!" she walked over placing a hand on Pink's knee. The other gems took notice of this action but said nothing, waiting for Pink Diamond's reply.
Pink straightened herself up and waved Flint off. "It's alright, I'm fine." Flint nodded, backing off, she took hold of her sword and this time hacked clean through.
The pain was much more pronounced this time and Pink Diamond fell to a knee, she covered her ears and her eyes clenched tight. "STOP!" she cried. The shock spread out from Pink and washed over every other gem there. Flint's weapon was jerked from her hand and dispersed. She looked to her now empty hand and then to her leader in shock.
The young Diamond slowly stepped forward, her eyes still shut, her hands reaching forward blindly. The gems backed away in fear, no one had ever seen her react this way. Pink placed a single hand on the root, she slowly felt down until she reached the stump. She took a sharp breath, as she placed a palm over its smooth surface. The young Diamond felt such great sorrow for this creature well up within her. She also felt… something strange sliding down her face. Pink reached up and wiped off a single droplet of water and without even thinking about it she reached down and touched the stump of the root.
Pink felt… lighter, a sense of relief as the root's wound sealed closed. She pressed her forehead to its surface and a single word sounded through her mind.
"Go."
The root twitched for a moment before it began to recede into the ceiling and moving out of sight, leaving a gaping hole. Pink's eyes widened suddenly as if she snapped out of a trance, she turned around to see all the gems staring at her in a mixture of awe, disbelief, and uncertainty. "Well, hallway's cleared up. Shall we?"
Yellow Diamond walked along the path along with her soldiers, according to the schematics of the facility she was heading towards the main control room. Even if the enemy wasn't there, if she could find a server of some sort to access, perhaps she could finally see the full scope of the enemy's plans.
The hallway emptied out into a large room. The soldiers spread out and Yellow looked around curiously. The room was massive but empty, Yellow didn't like the feel of this, something wasn't right. As if on cue lights switched on and the room was brightly illuminated.
"Yellow Diamond." Came a voice from over an intercom. "I see you've made you way into my home. I bet you thought this was the way to the control center of this place… Nope!" Yellow Diamond grimaced at this as she realized what had happened. "See we knew that you had the schematics for the facilities we were using, so we rearranged their layout long ago. Want to know which room you're in now?" Yellow could almost see the smug grin as the voice relayed the next part. "I call it, the Playroom' ."
As if on cue the room was sealed and panels on the walls opened up. Turrets popped out, opening fire on the gems, several of them were poofed right away. Others managed to dive out of the way, summoning the weapons and attacking the turrets.
Yellow took a knee, pointing towards the nearest turret with a single finger. A streak of electricity shot out and the turret sputtered before exploding, she did the same to the others in quick succession. The broken turrets receded into the walls and Yellow took a moment to access her surroundings. Only four gems were left standing, three of her quartz soldiers and a ruby, looking rather timid among them. The inactive gems lay on the floor and suddenly the lights inside the room were cut.
Yellow's gem illuminated the room, as did the gems of her remaining forces, but the gems on the floor were gone now. "Stay alert!" she ordered. The gems gathered back to back, readying their weapons for whatever came.
The intercom sounded again. "Let's stop playing games." With that the walls began to glow, slowly, and dimly at first but grew, crackling with electricity.
"Is this some sort of joke?" Yellow asked. She reached out a single hand and touched the wall, the electricity arced around her arm. "As if this little electrical charge could-" the panels she had lain her hand against suddenly gave way and Yellow fell forward, her arm sinking into the wall. She attempted to step back but was unable to move her arm, something had clamped tight around it. "What is-" she suddenly felt weak, as if her energy was being siphoned off. She turned her head towards the remaining gems. "You, get this thing off me!" she ordered.
One of the quartzes stepped up to try helping her leader but this time the floor gave way beneath her and she fell through, the floor quickly replacing itself. The same thing happened as adjacent walls opened up and a mass of wires grabbed the remaining gems, leaving only the ruby, looking as timid as ever. Yellow stared at the gem and inwardly sighed, she wasn't much but she'd have to do. Yellow pointed to her with her free arm. "You! Help me."
The ruby did as she was told, drawing out her weapon, a small dagger. She approached Yellow Diamond, then looked from her leader to the wall in which her arm was trapped and back. "Well?!" Yellow asked pointedly. The ruby lifted her dagger and sunk it into Yellow's leg. "Augh!" Yellow yelled out before reaching with the stabbed leg and attempting to kick the ruby away. The little gem effortlessly jumped over the clumsy movement and landed some feet away. "How dare you! Ugh! Why?!"
The ruby grinned before her form changed with a bright light and Onyx appeared in her place. "Because I could. Isn't that your motto Yellow Diamond?" she asked.
"You! You're that rogue gem!" Yellow said, still attempting to free herself from the wall.
"It's Onyx, and yeah, I figured you try something with the wall when you saw electricity surging through it, but now well, now I've got you." She said rather smugly.
"When did-"
"Almost as soon as you split from Pink Diamond." She explained. "You all make it rather simple for me, overlooking little rubies so easily. But then, what's one more ruby when there are thousands, right?"
Yellow attempted to send out electricity with her free hand at the gem but could summon little more than a spark from the ends of her finger tip. Onyx shook her head. "Sorry, your energy's all being siphoned elsewhere. No more firepower for you."
Yellow's face twisted with frustration began to soften, if only a little. "So what now? Are you going to try and shatter me while I'm trapped like this?"
Onyx shrugged. "Well, I'd love to, really… I would." She said putting emphasis on the last word. "But, I got another Diamond roaming my home. And, at the rate she's going, she's going to stumble upon, well let's say you two aren't my only guests, So I gotta get going." The dark gem tapped a floor plate twice with her foot and it slid open. "Have fun here, though I doubt you'll do little more than power my generator here. Maybe I'll just keep you like this, my own personal battery." She mused. "A Diamond doing what she's supposed to after all, working to serve us lesser gems." Onyx jumped down the hole, leaving Yellow to scream with frustration.
Blue looked with shock at this… thing before her. This gem looked corrupted, yet as she stared into the bright white iris of her opponent she could see the cognitive thinking, the signs of awareness and intelligence. "What… are you?"
The green gem laughed. "Like I told your sister before I took her down, my name's Diopside! The Diamond shatterer!"
Blue's eyes widened. "No, there's no way you took down White Diamond!" she shouted.
Diopside's smile grew only wider. "HA! That look! That look of shock! It's true. I took down the Great White Diamond!"
Blue struck with her water, striking Diopside across the face. The green gem took a few steps back and wiped her face. "Heh. Does it make you made? To know someone you love is gone?" Diopside victorious smile faded, replaced by a grimace. "Maybe now you understand, if only a little."
The Diamond summoned what water she could as it floated in the air around her. With a quick flick of her wrist large ice shards shot through the air towards Diopside. The green gem jerked her head up and stone shot up to shield her. She kicked it towards Blue who sliced it in half, the piece landing behind her. "Shall I show you?" she made a gesture and the rocky ceiling above them opened up and the ground beneath them was pushed up, putting them outside again. "There." Diopside made a gesture to behind Diamond and she turned to look. She saw a single large stone of dirt and stone. The green gem waved a hand and the excess fell away, revealing the unmistakable form of White Diamond, trapped in stone.
"White!" Blue called out, a great look of concern on her features. She turned back to Diopside. "You… how dare you…" Blue growled beginning to shake with rage.
"That's it. Get angry. Hurt. The way we've hurt." Diopside spat, her voice filled with loathing.
Blue looked to the water she had on hand, she couldn't afford to waste any more of the water she had. "To think that'd, I'd have to resort to this." Blue held a single hand, palm down and closed her eyes. The water floating around her began to gather under her palm, it twisted and formed a long pole. It rotated in the air, faster and faster, the water compressing and hardening. She then gripped it from the air and swung it around, a blue, ornately decorated, trident.
Diopside smirked. "The Trident of Blue Diamond. I hear a Diamond only draws her weapon when she's backed into a corner." The smirk deepened into a full-on grin. "Good. I want to beat you at your best, so you know that you were never as superior as you thought you were."
Blue swung around the trident in arcs around herself. "You want to see me at my best?" She swung the trident faster and faster, the remaining water around her disperse into the air. She then stopped, swinging the trident into the ground. "Done." The temperature, on this hot desert-like planet, began to drop, the skies, cloudless and clear, began to darken.
Diopside looked up. "What is this?" Blue said nothing, only gripped her trident tighter. The wind picked up and white specs began to form, falling from the sky. They swirled in the wind, mixing in with the dust and sand, clumping on the ground and making ugly, brown slush on the ground. Diopside narrowed her eyes and began to move forward towards Blue. The wind blew harder and harder, the green gem looked down to her arm, covered in frost, then to her feet, frozen in the slush. Still she tried to walk towards Blue but the ice only formed faster, covering her entire form, until her body was sealed in solid ice.
Blue Diamond breathed heavy, forcing the planet's weather to change like that had taken a lot of her power. She looked to the frozen ground and then to the sky which now dispersed, the moisture was quickly scattering into the atmosphere, her liquid supply was gone.
She turned back to the encased statue of White Diamond, running over to it. There didn't look to be any conventional way to free her eldest sister, she took her trident and picked away at the stone, it crumbled away revealing a hardened black surface underneath. "What is-"
CRACK
Blue turned around, a single fracture on the solid ice that encased Diopside, formed. The crack spread further and larger until the green gem burst out of the ice. "Was that it? I expected more." She gave a conceited look to Blue. "Did you think a little water could hold me?" With a single motion, she summoned a whip of sand and mud and wrapped it around Blue's arm. Diopside pulled with a great force, sending Blue into the air and sending her crashing down into the ground.
Blue had dropped her trident in the sudden attack and it lay some feet away from her. She tried to reach for it only for her arm to be slammed down by a great stone. "Augh!" she cried out.
The Diamond turned to see Diopside standing over her, looking down. The green gem put a boot to Blue's head and pushed down, sending it into the dirt. "Look at you, did everything you could." She leaned in closer, bending down. "But you couldn't even beat a lowly little gem like me." Diopside took her boot off the Diamond's head, summoning a great cube of dirt and rock from the ground. "Goodbye, Blue Diamond. You were never as mighty as you thought you were."
The great stone came down only for a shot of white light to come from behind and slam into it, reducing it to rubble. "What the-" Another beam of light knocked Diopside into the dirt. Blue managed to get up, clutching her arm to see her sister, black flakes peeling off her and her palm smoking.
She walked towards Blue, her eyes narrowed and a dark grimace on her face. "White… are you…?"
White Diamond momentarily looked towards her sister, the back to Diopside who had picked herself off the ground, wiping her chin. "No… no, the Black Water should have taken care of you."
"You miscalculated, on multiple accounts now." White, said her voice dark and dripping with barely-contained fury. "You want to see the power of a Diamond?" She said, her hands beginning to glow with White Light. "Let me show you what that means."
Pink continued to walk along the path, though now she was in the lead and the gems kept a respectful distance behind her now. Even Amethyst and Flint now walked side by side, exchanging looks with each other and at their leader. Amethyst finally decided to speak. "What was that?" she asked. "What she did?"
"You mean the part where our mild-mannered Diamond shrieked at the top of her lungs and forced me to dismiss my weapon? Or the other part where she communicated with that organic and forced it to leave?" Flint asked back.
"Either? Both?" The purple quartz replied. "I've never seen anything like it, any of what she did."
Flint shrugged. "You and I have known her longer than anybody else, but maybe it's just because she's… you know."
Amethyst looked to Flint, to her Diamond and back. "Pink?"
Flint smacked the purple quartz upside her head. "A Diamond, Am." Her face became grave. "I heard they're all like that. Diamonds got power like you wouldn't believe, maybe that's hers."
Amethyst rubbed the back of her head. "Why have we never seen it before?"
The grey gem shrugged again. "I don't know…" Flint summoned her sword looking at its flat edge, seeing her reflection looking back. "…I've never seen anything like it." She repeated under her breath.
"Hey!" Pink called out from the front, breaking Flint's concentration. "All of you get up here." The gems hurried forward and saw as the hallway opened up to two great metal doors. "You mind?" she asked.
Several of the quartz soldiers stepped up, including Flint and Amethyst. The grey quartz struck her blade into the door's slit, opening it up a little. The quartzes around Flint grabbed hold of the door's sides, pulling them apart, bit by bit.
A dark room opened before them, a sense of foreboding washed over the entire group as they entered. "Be careful." Pink advised as they poured into the room. It was longer than it had initially looked, extending way father than Pink would think necessary for a facility this size, what could it be for?
"Pink Diamond!" came a voice from the hallway. She turned to look and saw her sister standing in the doorway.
"Yellow?" Pink asked, confused to see her here. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to find you." Yellow replied as she stepped inside. "Some gem took out my soldiers and said she was coming for you." Her sister stepped into the room.
"Well, you found me." Pink said, now looking deeper into the room. "We were just about to-hey!" Yellow had stepped forward, grabbing Pink's wrist.
"We should retreat and regroup our forces, wait for reinforcements to arrive." The elder Diamond said, pulling Pink along.
"Yellow!" Pink stopped her sister, digging her heal into the metal floor and wrenching her wrist free. "What's your hurry? We still have soldiers with us, we should continue to look around."
Yellow shook her head. "No, Pink. This place is dangerous, we should leave now while we can."
The youngest Diamond was about to reply when something fell on her from the ceiling. "Hey! What the-?" she turned to look at the cause, only to see… an arm, flopping on the floor like a dying fish. She picked it up with one hand, holding it up to her face. It pinched her nose and she smacked it off. "This… is an arm… with no body." She said, curiously looking at it. The arm then managed to wiggle free of her grasp and fell to the floor. "Hey! Get back here!" she said trying to catch it, but proving to be surprisingly slippery.
The other gems turned at the sudden outburst and watched as the arm slinked away into the darkness. "Whoa, what was that?" Amethyst asked.
Flint summoned her weapon. "C'mon, let's go and get it!" she shouted to the other gems, who lead by Flint charged into the darkness.
"No, wait!" Yellow called out, but too late. The two Diamonds could hear the rustling of chains and a roar, then silence.
Flint came flying from the dark, skidding on the ground before coming to a stop. She slowly picked up her head and sat up, rubbing it. "What was…?"
Pink bent down to inspect the grey gem. "Flint! Are you alright?"
"I'm alright." She said picking herself up. "But, my Diamond, there's something back there."
"What is it? A corrupted gem?" Pink asked.
She shook her head. "I don't think so." She looked back towards the darkness. "It's all chained up, and it's big, very big. Took out most of us with a single wave of its arm." Just as she said this Amethyst and two rubies came running out.
"Am!" Flint exclaimed as she ran forward to embrace the purple gem. "I thought it got you."
"It came close." Amethyst admitted. "That thing is huge!"
"The others?" Pink asked and the purple quartz shook her head. "No, all the others lost their physical forms."
"Like I said, we should regroup with more soldiers." Yellow said turning to leave.
Pink sighed. "Yes… you're right." She stopped then, pausing for a moment. "You're… right." She said slowly.
"I know that already, let's go." Yellow said waking away.
"How did you know?" Pink asked, causing Yellow to stop mid-stride. "How did you know there was something back there?" she asked.
Yellow Diamond sighed, turning around and rubbing the back of her head. "Looks like I messed up, huh?" she said. Pink and the gems all gave looks of confusion. Yellow's form began to glow until her entire form was encased in light and it began to shrink. The light faded and a grey-black gem, smaller and more lean than a quartz with razor cut hair, took her sister's place. "Hello, there."
"Who are you? Where's my sister?" Pink asked.
The gem frowned. "You don't remember? Back in the forest?"
Pink's eyes widened. "That was you? Idocrase?"
"Well as long as we're being honest, my name is actually Onyx." The grey gem replied.
"And Yellow? What did you do with her?" Pink asked, anger beginning to seep into her words.
"Ah, right. Yellow Diamond." Onyx said, scratching her chin. "She's in a bit of a bind of her own right now." The grey gem took notice of the Diamond's look of shock and anger. "Don't worry, she hasn't been shattered or anything, not yet anyways… but at the same time I can't let her leave."
"I don't care what vendetta you have against other gems, you're gonna answer for what you've done!" Pink shouted.
"'Vendetta'?! What I've done?!" Onyx shouted back, tapping a plate on the floor. It was gone for a couple of seconds before a pile of gems, suspended in a glass casing, appeared beside her. "You think I want to harm other gems?! This isn't about gems, it's about the Diamonds!"
"What are you talking about?" Pink asked.
Onyx shook her head in disbelief. "I really can't believe this, you don't know? You really have no idea?" She stared pacing in a circle as she went on. "You know, when I meet you in the forest. I was thinking about shattering you right there on the spot. But something told me to approach you instead. After all, I knew plenty about all the other Diamonds, but not Pink. And you seemed different, I thought you might be worth sparing the fate of the others. But now I see, it's not that you're nicer than your sisters, you're just far more naïve, and much more ignorant."
"Hey! No one talks that way about our Diamond!" Flint said taking a step forward.
"That's right." Amethyst said as she backed up Flint.
Onyx looked from one quartz to the other. "I see, looks like you're really rubbed off on them." The grey gem held out her palm and summoned a weapon, a halberd, swinging it around with great speed and force before stopping. "I take it you won't just leave then?"
"No, you're going to tell me everything you know." Pink said, readying herself as her gems did likewise.
Onyx gave a little smile, leaning forward, her hair falling in front of her eyes. "Is that so?" She tapped her foot twice on the ground and the entire room went extremely bright for a moment before fading to dark.
Pink looked around, momentarily blinded and saw Onyx quickly leap into action. She nearly cut Flint in half but the later managed to summon her sword and block it just in time. Amethyst tried to come up from behind but Onyx had already leaped into the air, using her weapon to sweep her off her feet and kick her into the rubies.
Pink tired to step forward and join the fray, but Onyx's halberd suddenly transformed into a whip and caught Pink around the foot, quickly yanking it and sending Pink tumbling to the floor. "You can change your weapon?" she asked.
The rogue gem smiled. "I can do so much more than just that." She said, glowing again, this time taking the form of Pink Diamond herself. The fake Pink then jumped onto the original, tumbling with her on the floor, the struggled like this with a few moments before breaking apart.
"Get her!" One said pointing to the other.
"No, get her!" The other said pointing to the first one.
Flint and the rubies looked between the two. How were they supposed to-
Amethyst threw her mace through the air, hitting one of the Diamonds in the forehead. She fell to the ground and a bright light again engulfed her, turning back into Onyx.
The other three gems looked to Amethyst. "How-?"
The purple quartz gave a quizzical look. "What? Weren't you guys paying attention to which one was which?" she asked.
Flint walked over and picked up Onyx by one of her arms. "You ready to surrender?"
The rogue gem looked to the quartz and summoned a mace in her free hand, swinging towards Flint's head. The later blocked it with her forearm and knocked it out of Onyx's hand with a swift punch to the gut. The quartz then threw Onyx hard against the ground, sending her bouncing off the ground and into the darkness.
Pink and the others walked in after her, their gem's lights shining brightly and the young Diamond saw it. This… thing was all sorts of colors, a menagerie of different hues and shades. It was… big, amethyst hadn't been wrong about that. Even in the room they stood in now which was quite large, the creature seemed cramped. It looked to be hunched over, hiding its head behind its arms, which were cuffed at the wrists. Across the back appeared to be frills, but upon closer inspection Pink saw that they were arms, laid back in rows. In fact, looking closely, the entire body seemed to be made out limbs, interconnecting and acting as one.
The creature stirred as they neared, taking notice of their presence. As it moved, several smaller limbs seemed to fall off from it and scatter around. It lifted its head, no eyes, only more limbs, yet it seemed to sense their presence somehow. Onyx lay before it, badly beaten, her physical form beginning to phase out. The creature seemed to be looking at her and then began to shake.
"What is it do-?" Amethyst began to ask before she got her answer.
AAAAWWUUGH!
The creature howled in pain, pulling at its restraints and pounding its fists on the floor, again and again. So loud and powerful the whole room seemed to be shaking and the gems backed away. The chains gave way and whipped out. Onyx managed to pick herself off the floor, holding one arm and made her way closer to the creature. As she neared it began to calm down, becoming passive when she touched it.
The rogue gem calmed the beast but then pulled out a vial of the corrupted primordial gel. She said something, nearly inaudible but Pink heard it.
"Forgive me."
Onyx took the vial and tossed it inside the creature's mouth, then turned to around to give one last look to the gems, giving a toothy and knowing grin before her physical form gave out and she returned to her dormant gem state.
The creature seemed to be doing nothing at all, not even reacting to its friend's apparent demise. But it shuddered again and this time, its body began to grow and darken, becoming even more massive.
"Oh, no…" Pink whispered before the giant creature roared and charged them.
White moved quickly across the battlefield as she and Diopside battled. The latter sent massive amounts of stone and dirt her way only for White to blow them to pieces with light.
"DIE DIE DIE!" Diopside shouted as she rode a rock wave and continued to send huge rcoks at White. The Diamond effortlessly targeted the projectiles with pin-point accuracy and destroyed them.
White Diamond targeted one of Diopside's legs and shot. It hit and the gem fell over. The green gem tried to get up but White shot her other knee, forcing the rogue gem to kneel. White approached her, her face calm and collected. "Are you ready to give up?"
Diopside gritted her teeth. "NO! NEVER!"
White sighed running a hand through her hair. "It seems you still don't realize how big the gap between us is." The elder Diamond made a hand motion and white light gathered in her palm. The light straightened out and became a long glowing rod. The light faded and revealed a lavishly decorated staff, as long as White was tall.
The staff's head, a white jewel, began to glow, brighter and brighter, White then aimed it at a large plateau, miles away. Without even looking towards her target, White released the energy and it shot out towards it.
CRACKA-BOOOOOM
The plateau was blown apart in a spectacle of bright white light, continuing onwards through it and out into space.
White dismissed the staff and leaned down to Diopside. "You see? The difference in our power is as great as the space between stars."
The green gem, who had been amazed by the spectacle, now seemed frustrated with the knowledge, shaking with fury. "Is that what you think? Well… WHY DON'T I SHOW YOU WHAT I CAN REALLY DO!" Diopside raised her fists and White backed off, readying herself. The rogue gem brought them down hard on the ground and the elder Diamond felt a shockwave sent out, it had felt like the entire planet had shifted.
White looked around, the entire planet seemed to be vibrating now, only a little bit but she could definitely feel it. "What have you done…?"
The green gem gave a smirk. "I win."
Meanwhile in Pink and Yellow's system…
A small sleek ship dropped out of hyperspace, just barely out of range from being drawn into the sun. The ship's captain switched over to the video of its payload and sighed. "Thank you Onyx, I know what must be done."
Done, please review.
