Chapter 17, you know the question from last chapter was rhetorical, right?

I don't own Steven Universe.


Chapter 17: Hope

Yellow Diamond's large strides allowed her to race far ahead of the gems trailing behind her and her height allowed a greater vantage point. The stalks of mushrooms were getting thicker, taller and more densely gathered as she neared her soldier's positions.

One quartz was peering from behind a fallen fungus, scanning for any sign of the enemy when she spotted Yellow Diamond approached her. She gave the salute but did not stand to do it. Under normal circumstances Yellow would have disciplined this gem, but now was not the time. She bent down on one knee. "What's the situation here?" she asked.

"My Diamond, our forces were doing well. We drove back the armies of corrupted gems and the robonoids, but then-" The quartz was interrupted by a large explosion in the distance, causing both of them to look towards the source. A few more gems appeared to be running away from, at this distance Yellow couldn't be sure. Flashes of metallic gray could be seen through the space in the white mushroom trees. The gems then turned in their direction and their pursuer came crashing through the trees.

It was a large metallic sphere, crawling around on seven large, metal, insect-like legs. All across the surface of the sphere turrets shot at gems who scattered around it.

The other gems finally caught up to Yellow Diamond, looking up at the mighty machine in awe. "What is that thing?" Flint asked.

Yellow tightened her fist, a deep frown appearing on her face. "Scrap."


Pink could feel the area around her moving, yet she herself was stationary. "What's going on? What have you done?" she asked.

"Relax." Spinel replied. "This is doing little more than delaying the inevitable. And we still have much to discuss."

Pink was silent for a moment before returning to the previous subject. "What makes you think I can do anything about corruption?"

"Because I've seen you heal things before." The rogue gem replied, typing on her console again. This time showing Pink as she was back in Onyx's base, healing the root of the tree.

"You were watching us the whole time?" The young Diamond asked.

"When I could, yes. In truth, what I saw was rather limited, but like I said before I don't need much to fill in the blanks myself." She then turned away from her console to look the young Diamond in the eye. "Some sort of regenerative power, is it not?"

"I… am not sure." Pink replied truthfully. "It's not like I've tested it or anything." That was a lie. She had in fact tested it n some of the charred trees her sister had killed in the battle with the gem beast. But to no avail. She hadn't really had much chance to try anything else before they had left again for their final assault. "What, are you going to try and extract it from me so that you can finish the cure?"

"I could, but we don't really have that kind of time." The rogue gem replied, pulling out a device from the far side of the console. It looked like a mini injector pod, but with a handle.

"What is that?" asked the captive Diamond.

"My final gift to you." Spinel replied.


The gems scattered, caught between avoiding the fire of the metal construct and the fire coming from the remaining robonoids.

"Advance, flank the enemy!" Yellow ordered. The gems complied as best they could, attempting to fight back against the overwhelming force. Flint and Amethyst fought side by side, advancing as they dodged laser fire and smashed robonoids.

"Where is Pink Diamond?" Amethyst asked over the fire to her friend.

"Up there, somewhere!" Flint replied as they hid behind one of the mushroom trees. "We need to find a way to get up there."

"Or bring it down to us." The purple quartz added before pointing over to Yellow Diamond. The older Diamond in question had raised her hands in the air and started rotating them in small circles and the gems looked up to see dark cloud begin to form, a deep booming sound from the sky.

The grey quartz acted as quickly as she could. "GET OUT OF THERE!" she yelled to the gems closest to the machine's position. They began to scatter but too late as a massive bolt came down upon it, surrounding the area in blinding light for a brief moment.

KRA-KA-BOOM!

Came the accompanying sound of the thunder. As their eyes readjusted they looked to see that they great machine… had changed in absolutely no way.

Amethyst was dumbfounded. "What happened? Why is it still standing after that?"

Flint looked to see one of the legs of the machine had stuck itself in the ground. "The electricity just passed through it to the ground."

"Doing this the hard way then." Yellow said, narrowing her eyes and raising her hand to the air. The wind blew rapidly around her palm and electricity surged as she summoned her weapon. Yellow Diamond charged as shots were fired at her from the giant machine and the little ones remaining.

She dodged them with quickness and grace before sending out a wave electricity at some of the robonoids, causing them to explode. She turned her attention to the greater machine and jumped brandishing her sword. The turrets locked on and fired but Yellow blocked the bolts as they neared her. She raised her blade and struck down on one of the metal legs. However, the metal did not give in and caused the blade to bounce off. The elder Diamond landed nimbly on her feet and quickly jumped back as the attacked metal leg attempted retaliation, skewering the ground where she'd just stood.

Yellow pressed two fingers to her blade and it began to surge with energy. She dodged another attack by one of the legs, stepping to the side and this time cutting cleanly through the metal. The giant machine staggered back before reorienting itself with its remaining legs. It tried again to skewer her but again missed and hit the ground. Yellow swung again with her energized sword, but this time energy surged around the leg and negated her attack. "What?" she said aloud before another leg quickly acted on her opening and knocked her square across the chest, sending the Diamond flying through the air and landing hard again one of the fungal trees.

Flint turned around to the other gems who had cleared the space and were watching the Diamond fight the machine alone. "Are we just going to stand here?" With that the other gems rallied to her and began to attack as a group again the great machine and the lesser machines still scattered around it.

Amethyst meanwhile ran over to Yellow Diamond. "My Diamond, are you hurt?" she asked.

Yellow shook her head. "I'm fine." She said curtly, before eyeing the severed leg. She then turned to the purple quartz. "Bring me parts from those metal minions. I have an idea."

Amethyst did as she was told running over to the battlefield and grabbing as many piece as she could carry before running back to Yellow who in the meantime had grabbed the metal leg and with some twisting had snapped it into two pieces. The purple quartz laid down the pieces and Yellow laid down on her front, reaching over to the pile and crushing it into a metal ball.

"My Diamond, what are you-" The quartz began to ask before the Diamond shot her with a silencing look. Yellow then held the ball out for Amethyst to take. "Thank you?" she said confused.

"Stand here." Yellow said pointing to a spot just in front of her face. The gem did as she was bade and Yellow picked up the pieces of metal lining them up parallel to one another and aiming them towards the giant machine. "Hold up the ball between the metal poles." She ordered and the purple quartz did as she was told. Energy began to surge between the poles, dancing back and forth between them. Amethyst could feel it, it felt tingly. "Now be careful. If you don't do exactly as I say, you'll be launched at super high speeds and will most likely be either smashed against something and be destroyed or flung out into the far reaches of space, never to be seen again."

"What?!" The purple gem asked with sudden shock and worry.

The current began to intensify and Amethyst could feel the metal ball being pulled away from her and began to loosen her grip. "No! Not yet!" Yellow ordered. The purple quartz reluctantly tightened her hold as the pull became stronger and stronger. "Steady, steady… and…" the surge grew exponentially the pulling becoming almost more than Amethyst could fight against. "NOW!" she ordered. The purple quartz had been a bit late though, being pulled suddenly as she was letting go and causing her to fall on her face.

The metal ball however flew through the air and ripped right through the machine's hull. However, the shot had been off, only managing to gaze its side near the top.

Yellow stood up as the machine recovered from the attack, looking to the two metal poles in her hands, now horribly malformed, glowing red-hot with heat. She tossed them aside and looked down to the Amethyst, then to the hole and back. "If I toss you up there, do you think you can make it inside?" she asked her.

The purple quartz picked herself form the ground and looked to the opening. "I think so."

Yellow grabbed her around her waist and ran closer. "Good to hear." She jumped into the air and winded up. "Now GO!" said the Diamond throwing the gem through the air towards the opening. The purple gem managed to slip inside but the momentum carried her into the wall, smashing her face against its surface.

Amethyst got herself up and looked around. She had landed in some sort of large open hall, it was surprisingly empty and dark. She could make out cages and some sort of racks lined up against the wall but they were all empty now.

She heard a sudden thud behind her and the purple quartz turned to see her best friend smeared against the wall, just as she had been only seconds ago. Flint got up and shook her head, turning around and seeing Amethyst.

"Flint, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Saw you fly in here so I asked Yellow Diamond to do the same with me." The grey quartz replied with a smile.

Amethyst sighed and smiled. "Well, I guess if I had to fly into a giant metal death-sphere with anyone, I'm glad it's you."

"Great then let's shut this place down." Said Flint walking past her only to stop as soon as she did.

The grey quartz narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. Amethyst watched as she did this and followed her gaze to see what caused such a reaction.

On the far side of the room, standing side by side were Onyx and Zircon. They walked in tie with one another Onyx with a smug smile on her face while Zircon seemed expressionless.

"Glad to see you guys were able to make it." Onyx greeted. "For a while I thought we'd have to go outside, but nope, here you are. Very gracious of you."

"Well you know us, aim to please." Amethyst replied coolly.

Flint took an aggressive step forward. "You! You two blew up While Diamond's ship!"

"Yep, and this floor is metal and there's a hole in the ceiling. Now, if we're done stating the obvious shall we just get down to the nitty-gritty?" Onyx said summoning a whip while Zircon dropped into a fighting stance.

"Don't mind if I do!" Amethyst said jumping into the air and summoning her own weapon, attempting to slam them to the ground only for the both of them to jump away.

The purple quartz lunged after Zircon who dodged around her attacks. Amethyst took a swing but it phased right through the red gem who then kicked Amethyst away with the opening created.

The purple gem stood up as Flint came to her side. "My attack… it went right through her!" she said shocked.

"Yeah, she can do that." Onyx called out. Zircon rushed the two of them and Flint slashed at her with her sword only for the red gem to raise an arm and block it, the sword clanging against it. "She can also do that!" Onyx called out as she lashed her whip around Amethyst's leg and swung her around, knocking her into the wall. "C'mon make this fun for me!"


The fighting could be heard from below within Spinel's inner sanctum. Pink looked towards the ceiling. "Sounds like someone managed to get in."

"They won't get past Zircon and Onyx." Spinel replied, completely unfazed by the events around her. She continued typing away at the console, screens of data appeared. She turned to Pink. "This is all the data I've collected over the years concerning what we've talked about. If you have any lingering questions, I suggest you ask them of me. Time is short and growing shorter."

Pink blinked then turned serious. "What about back when we first found your robonoid on Igon? What were you doing there?"

"When I first began testing the cure, hoping that using primordial ooze could cure them, much of the ooze became tainted. In time, I had massive stores of it, so I decided to test it, but I needed a clean untainted kindergarten. I was curious what the effects would be, gems created from tainted primordial ooze. I was hoping it would give me insight into what the nature of corruption was, what the cure might truly be. Instead, all I did was create another monster." She paused just then, gathering her thoughts. "It was then I found a… secondary use for all the tainted ooze. I concentrated it into dense batches and gave them to my friends. I found that it could multiply a gem's strength many times over, but at a cost."

"Corruption." Pink finished.

"Worse. It degrades the very core of a gem's being the longer it's used, and eventually it will shatter the gem." Spinel corrected.

"You gave that to your friends knowing it could destroy them?" Pink asked.

"I told them of the risks, but what choice did we have? One on one against a Diamond? We needed any advantage we could get. Diopside was the most willing to accept the risk, hoping that it would give her enough strength to defend her friends. Always so rash that one." Said Spinel wistfully. "The first one for last resort."

"Why me? Why are you putting so much trust in me?" Pink asked.

"I don't have any better options left." The rogue gem replied truthfully. "To be honest, it was White Diamond I wanted captured, not you."

"Why her?" The young Diamond asked.

"Because…. because she wasn't always as she was." Spinel replied. "You might not know this but she was once kind, and good to gems. But after the appearance of your sisters, she changed. By the time I was made she had long since been changed. Still, with my power, I could always sense it within her, that kindness, I wanted to bring it about again. But now she's gone and it's now you I must pin my hopes on."

"You're talking about this 'gift' of yours." Pink concluded.

"That's right." She said, walking away from her console and holding up the device. "This is something I made based on the designs of our very own injector pods. I call it the essence extractor."

"An appropriate name I imagine." Pink commented.

"Indeed." Spinel replied. "This will allow me to give you my gift." She looked at it, with some sorrow. "I actually devised this when I thought a cure impossible. I hoped that I could perhaps 'cut off' the infected parts of gems and it would be enough to allow a gem to retain their form. But no, gems would always form only in incomplete versions of themselves. Failures, as always." She said, her voice seeping in frustration.

"Now you're going to use it to give me your power? How do you even know it'll work?"

"I don't." The rogue gem responded. "I don't even know how it might affect you in other ways, but this is my best shot, so I'm taking it." With that she placed the device over her arm, where her gem was located. It clamped down on her appendage and a drill bit started whirling and digging into the gem. Spinel gritted her teeth but eventually the pain was too much. She cried out in pain and agony as the gem was being drilled into. Her physical form began to flicker but she held on and then the whirling stopped and Spinel fell to her knees, now flickering, her physical form now very unstable.

Spinel got to her feet, Pink's expression on of shock. "What did you do to yourself?"

"What I had to." Spinel answered as she held up the extractor and pulled out its vial, now filled with some sort of glowing substance, not unlike primordial ooze. "You need to take this, and drink."

Pink seemed hesitant and Spinel sighed. "Look, I know what I've told you is a lot to accept and you still have doubts, I can still sense that much. Maybe you even think there's a chance I'm wrong about all this. But even if that were true, can you really take the chance that I'm right?"

The young Diamond thought on this. There was indeed a part of her that wanted to deny everything. A part that wanted to remain loyal to her sisters and everything she'd been taught about them for the past millennia. But one development after another had quickly eroded away the perfect image Pink had had of the Diamond Authority. Now this gem before her, a so-called rebel, a menace to all gem-kind, had been very forthright with her.

"Before I agree, I need to know one more thing. Do…. Do you really expect me to shatter my sisters?" Pink asked.

"The way the Diamond authority are now, they are a threat to all forms of life in the cosmos. One way or the other they need to be stopped." Spinel replied.

"What if there's another way?" The young Diamond asked.

"You care very much for your sisters, don't you?" Spinel asked. Pink nodded and the rogue gem smiled. "I really hope they are deserving of that love. But think about this, if it comes down to it, would you be willing to let all other life suffer or die so that they may live?"

"It won't come to that." Pink replied adamantly.

"I guess we'll see about that, won't we?" said Spinel, she then held up the vial. "Now take this, and prove I wasn't wrong trusting you."


Yellow Diamond and the remaining gems continued to fight against the great machine. The remaining robonoids had been wiped out but could do little more than hold out against the assault of the metal giant.

Yellow gritted her teeth, being the bulwark against its firepower had taken a lot out of her. She hadn't expected to have to fight so hard for so long. "What is taking them?"

Just then a Pink blur bounded through the air, bouncing off the legs and quickly disappearing down the hole in the machine's head. "What was-?"


Amethyst and Flint fought hard against the rogue gems but were being pushed back, their teamwork flawless. Onyx changed her weapon to sickle, pulling Flint's leg out from under her and causing her to fall to the ground. "See ya." She brought down the sickle only to be blocked by a pink-white rapier. Onyx looked up to see Pearl's grin. The thin gem quickly capitalized on her sudden arrival and flung the sickle out of Onyx's hand before wheeling around and kicking her across her mid-section, sending her flying away.

Flint was astonished. "Pearl! What are you doing here?' she asked.

"Like I'm just going to stay behind while our Diamond is being held captive?" The lithe gem replied with the same grin. She extended a hand to Flint who graciously took it.

"Listen, Pink is somewhere deeper inside, you need to find her." Flint said. "Well hold these two off here."

Pearl nodded before running off towards the far side of the room where a door was.

Onyx charged Pearl changing her sickle to a spear. "You aren't going anywhere!"

"That's my line!" Flint said as she blocked the rogue gem's blow, allowing Pearl to slip past.

"No!" Onyx called out, braking away from Flint. "Zirc! It's time to stop messing around!"

The red gem nodded to her sister and broke away from Amethyst. The two rogue gems gathered together as the two quartzes did the same. Zircon and Onyx held hands then the red gem spun her sister around in a dance and twirled her before throwing Onyx into the air. The two gems collided and combined and before them stood a gem with wild, crazy hair on the top of her head, but was straight and neat on the sides. She was a hue of stripes, dark greys and reds with three arms, two on each side and one that came from her back like a tail and longer that the other two. "Axinite. Let's… go…" the fusion said. It sounded like it was struggling with the words.

"Amethyst. Let's fuse." The grey quartz suggested. Amethyst chuckled a bit at that. "What's so funny?"

"That you'd be the one to suggest we fuse, it's funny. That's all." Amethyst then quickly grabbed Flint around the waist and leaned her down in a dance. Their forms glowed and a dull-purple gem with four arms and gray-purple braided hair. "I was beginning to think I'd never see the light of day again." She said with a grin. "Name's Tourmaline." With that she summoned Amethyst's mace in one hand and Flint's sword in another and smashed then together, producing a large, long cudgel from the light. The rushed forward and clashed.


Pearl ran through the structure, quickly heading down the stairs and coming to stop in front of a large sealed entryway. The lithe gem pressed her hand up against it. "This must be it." She attempted to pull the doors apart, but they didn't budge. She tried to put her sword through the seams in the door to pry it open, but it didn't work either. Pearl sighed, she really didn't like doing this. She held out her sword in front of her and began to rotate it in circles, faster and faster. Soon a pink-white circle of energy formed itself and with one last motion Pearl thrusted into the circle, passing through it and stopping on the other side to the astonished looks of both Pink Diamond and Spinel.

"Pearl!" Pink exclaimed. "How did you-"

"No time, my Diamond." Pearl said, looking to Spinel. "It's over, rogue!"

"Wait, you don't-" Spinel said before Pearl charged her. The rogue gem was pushed to the ground and Pearl held her blade up ready to strike.

"Pearl! Stop!" Pink ordered.

The lithe gem looked back to her Diamond in confusion. "What?"

Spinel took the opportunity to crawl out from under Pearl, the gem moved to detain Spinel but Pink called out again. "Pearl!"

"But, my Diamond, she-" The lithe gem attempted to argue.

"Wait, just wait." Spinal said, walking over to the console. Pearl watched her carefully but remained where she was as the rogue gem began to press commands into the console. The field around the young Diamond came down and Pearl dismissed her sword, quickly going to her Diamond's side as she stood up to her full height.

"Are you hurt?" Pearl asked.

"No, I'm fine." She replied. Pink then walked over to Spinel and leaned down. "Give it here."

"Really?" asked the rogue gem. "You're sure? There's no turning back."

"No, I'm not. I still have my doubts. But, you're right, the alternative is far worse." The young Diamond said taking the vial.

"My Diamond, what is that?" Pearl asked.

"I'll explain later." Pink replied before downing the substance in one gulp. "Huh, I thought I'd feel… different."

"The effect won't be immediate." Said Spinel. She then sighed, going over to the console and sending in a few commands. "There, the base's defenses will be down, this place should be coming down in just a few minutes which leaves just one thing."

"I am so utterly confused." Said Pearl exasperatedly.

Spinel looked to Pink Diamond, a weary smile on her face. "You need to shatter me."


Axinite and Tourmaline's battle raged on, exchanging blows. Tourmaline was beginning to get the upper hand as Axinite kept changing weapons. "You can't keep it up for very long can you? That phasing-through ability." The quartz fusion taunted.

Axinite grimaced, turning her sword she'd been using into a war hammer. She swung it but Tourmaline ducked and punched her in the side. The rogue fusion gritted her teeth but turned her arm-tail into flail, turning around quickly and knocking Tourmaline away.

The quartz fusion recovered as Axinite jumped up and slammed her fist into ground as Tourmaline rolled out of the way. The ground around them trembled and both fusions lost their footing. "Too… much… falling…. apart…" The rogue fusion said slowly. As she began to glow and drift apart.

Tourmaline tried to charge her but Axinite recovered just in time. She phased through the quartz fusion's attack and punched her hard in the stomach sending Tourmaline flying into the opposite wall. As Tourmaline hit the wall a bright light signed and Flint and Amethyst fell apart.

Axinite tried to advance only to fall apart as well, Onyx and Zircon now huddled together as Amethyst picked herself up. "Zirc…" she whispered to her sister. "You've overused your power too much, you know what'll-"

She stopped as she noticed the purple quartz attempting to charge them. Onyx tried to defend her sister, but she was also drained and was knocked out of the way by Amethyst.

Zircon attempted to stand up but was quickly knocked back down as Amethyst towered over her. She raised her mace. "This is for all the gems you've made suffer."

Onyx recovered just in time to watch Amethyst bring down her mace. "No! STOOOP!"

The red gem on Zircon's arm exploded into shards, her physical form fading away as she gave one last tearful look to her sister.

Flint had also sat up just in time to see what had happened. "Amethyst…" she said slowly.

The rogue gem's eyes began to stream with tears as she quickly got to her feet and charged the quartz. Amethyst quickly moved to block her but Onyx had transformed her weapon into a whip and yanked her feet out from under her, pulling her close before quickly transforming the weapon into a blade, cutting the quartz squarely across the stomach.

Amethyst gave one last look to Flint before her physical form faded, her gem hitting the ground. Onyx transformed her blade into a war hammer. The grey quartz saw as her friend too was shattered into shards, tears streaming from both of the remaining gems as the rogue gem allowed her weapon to disappear.


Outside Yellow and the other gems continued the pounding on the machine's hull. "Keep it up we almost have it down!" The older Diamond ordered. The structure indeed began to buckle and the legs collapsed. "They did it." Yellow said as she walked forward towards the structure.

From within the shell a Pink fist emerged, peeling back the remaining metal before stepping outside. At her heels were Pearl, Flint, and Amethyst.

"Pink! Thank the stars you're safe." Yellow said as she stepped closer to her sister. "Is it over?" she asked.

Pink held out her hand, turning it over and showing black, darkened, gem shards. "It's over."


Done. Reviews would be nice.