"I lied to you, Steven, and I apologize for doing so. I wanted you to come here and thought no other course of action was likely to accomplish this. I just really wanted your company. Anything but sand! And I wanted to show somebody my setup. Again, I apologize." Peridot was prostrate, grovelling at Steven's feet.
"What did you lie about?" Peridot frowned up at him. "...Topaz doesn't actually want me here, does she."
Peridot had called Steven earlier that day and cheerfully requested his company, acknowledging that Topaz had finally come around on keeping the Beta K Crystal-G-free. Steven was more than happy to spend time with Peridot in person for once, even if it did mean having to deal with Topaz being there, too.
But, as soon as Steven got there, Peridot threw herself and her guilt to the ground and confessed like a sinner too contrite to wait for the oratory.
"Yes," she exclaimed, hugging Steven's legs. "It was all a ruse to get you here!"
Steven frowned, too, and stooped down to Peridot. "You know you don't have to lie to me."
She fidgeted. "Would you have come otherwise?" Steven's forehead wrinkled. "You see! Your silence says it all!"
"Well," he admitted, "I wouldn't have wanted to upset anyone. But, if you truly needed me, Peridot, I'd be here in a heartbeat. You can always count on that." He placed a hand on her shoulder.
"...I'm assuming your idiom implies a human heartbeat? Different types of organisms have varying pulse rates..."
Steven chuckled. "Yeah, a human heartbeat. You're such a smartie."
Peridot smiled.
Then Steven recalled why he shouldn't be here, and instead of letting the reason come out as a statement for Peridot, it came out as a question. "Should I go?"
"No!" she resounded, like there shouldn't have even been a question. "I mean, Topaz isn't here right now. You can stay for at least a little bit. Besides, aren't you curious about what all that primitive technology I sent to your address has become?"
How could Steven say no to that impossibly hopeful traffic-light-green face? Steven followed Peridot into the Crack of Doom.
"By the way," said Steven, "where is Topaz?"
"She's out collecting things."
"Collecting things? What kinds of things?"
Peridot shrugged out of annoyance. "Human treasures. They're over then in that chest if you're feeling nosey."
She pointed over to Topaz's bed-which remained just a mattress swaddled in a cold, unfeeling, metal frame. Under it was a steamer trunk.
Mordor. It was all burning with the fires of Mordor. The Eye of Sauron was watching Steven from its barren and black lands and insurmountable doom grappled his heart as he gazed at its treasure underneath the bed. It tempted him. But, holding onto his fingers, he said, "Maybe later..."
Steven stayed over in Gondor, which was still very cramped and cluttered from Peridot's things. There was now, however, a large computer desk wading in her sea of boxes, that had, beneath it, the biggest desktop tower Steven had ever laid eyes on. On top of the desk were four curved monitors side by side, shaped into a quarter circle. One of them sat in front of the keyboard-which glowed radioactive green from underneath the keys-with one just to the left and the other two wrapping around on the right. To the left of her monitors was a printer and a horde of papers that could hardly be called organized. Peridot also had a mic and headset, and her portable sound recorder and her phone was on the desk as well. All of Peridot's hardware illuminated the cave with a deep ocean green, and looked like they could transform into robots at any moment.
"Here, sit," demanded Peridot. She rolled an adjustable chair over to him, which was a smaller, kid-friendly seat attached to a chair cylinder that looked like it could lift a car. He hopped up into the Frankenstein chair and Peridot pushed him over to her desk. She stood on tiptoes to reach her mouse. Her four-monitor-long screensaver of kawaii aliens doing peace signs vanished. The cursor moved through the four screens like a bullet.
"That receiving tower I constructed not only transmits phone signals, but allows me access to Earth's 'web' at the top available speeds!" Hovering over the screen directly in front of Steven, Peridot opened a web page. "This is where I access Earth's social media, where humans from across the planet are humbled by my keen interpretations of other media. Look at this post I made last week."
Steven read it aloud. "Pierre's decision to leave Camp Pining Hearts without explanation at the end of the fifth season is obviously the result of anguish he gained from his haphazard relationship with Paulette. The agony of seeing Paulette's horrid face daily became too great and relates to me, specifically."
"Yes," said Peridot, "you see, Piercy4lyf8==D liked my post. They commented, 'agreed.'"
Steven saw other comments below Piercy's. They called OmniPeri horrible names and said that that was the season the actor for Peirre had tragically died. What was worse was that Peridot had actually responded to those comments...
Peridot scrolled over to the screen to the right. "Here is where I like to keep databases, both written and recorded, of human advances and knowledge. It helps to learn more about Earth."
Steven noticed that there were so many tabs crammed on this screen that it was impossible to read any of them. "You must know more about Earth than me by now."
"Most likely," she said. She continued to the next screen on the far right. "Here, I run software and applications with dynamic physics engines to simulate future projects."
Peridot swivelled a 3D model of some monstrosity of circuitry and engineering that made the Bubble Base Telescope look benign! Steven said he didn't even know what he was looking at.
"Eh, it'll be some time before its implementation. But, over here-" She raked the cursor all the way over to the far left monitor and spun Steven with it. "Here is where I have those useless documentaries you love so much that only superficially heighten one's emotions! I saw this one earlier today..."
Peridot played a video of a cat with very un-cat-like reflexes. She chortled, "It's funny because it's a disgrace to its species!"
Steven chuckled. "Peridot, this is incredible. How do you keep track of all this stuff?"
"We Peridots-I, especially-are quite proficient in spanning our cognitive abilities over many tasks at once. It goes without saying that we were made for productivity."
"It goes without saying that you. Are amazing!"
"You know it and I know it. Ooh, here, let me show you this!" Peridot picked up her portable recorder. "I've modified my log device to send just recorded data to my computer via email. Furthermore, I've made a program that scans all emails I receive, and any sent from my log device, the attached recording is instantly downloaded and stored into a predesignated folder. They are automatically saved with the current date and time. For example..."
Peridot cleared her throat and punched the record button. "Log date 10 14 2. Steven had arrived a short while ago, and already he is crumpling with adoration at my talents and the extreme at which he misses my presence. It makes me feel... grandiose."
Steven howled, "BIG MOOD!" It made Peridot cackle.
Cocky, she pointed to her monitor. Sure enough, a download had started and completed. Peridot came round and, like a lightning strike, opened up the folder that had her logs.
"That scrollbar is microscopic," said Steven.
"Immaterial." Peridot brought up a search bar, typed a couple numbers and the page instantly took them to the latest file. She played it. BIG MOOD!
"And with that, I can delete this data on my recorder and make room for more."
Steven applauded. His claps were sharp in the echo of the little cave and it made him weaken them until there was silence.
Peridot sighed, her few moments in the spotlight snuffed out.
Steven looked around the room. Disregarding the computer, it felt like a homeless person lived here. And maybe that homeless person was a warlock, young and on a journey of self-discovery, cutting himself off from all civilization, going stir-crazy in doing so, with him only his books and the unventilated fumes from his cauldron brews. Every nook was hard with an outrage that never reached the light of day. Over never being satisfied. Over never being good enough.
"What do you guys do for fun?"
"Fun?" Peridot repeated.
"You and Topaz."
Peridot's gaze drifted over to Topaz's side and onto the bed. She hummed fondly. "Remember things."
"Yeah?" Steven said, piqued.
"Like-we were just talking about this last night-one time we were both assigned to the same operation to a distant star system, which was so improbable that Garnet is more likely to unfuse herself. The only other time it happened was how we met." Steven smiled. Perdiot was giddy. "And I don't know if it was because I was there, but Topaz was high strung in that devious way, and she had a smart remark for anything I had to say to her. She wasn't taking her position on board seriously at all!" Peridot flopped her hands around. "Ugh! She aggravated me so much! She just kept finding excuses to come into the control room. She even once said she was lost. And it worked!" Peridot grimaced. "You'd have to be a Ruby to get lost on an interstellar space craft carrier! They're made to transport many different kinds of Gems so the layout is ridiculously straightforward.
"Oh, my stars, then the Laguna Agate-the captain of the ship-caught us canoodling in our little tryst tucked away in the far corner of the space craft bay. And Topaz just looked her right in the eye and told her we were merely doing a final systems check on all the docked ships, which was why I was there. And you know what?" Peridot leaned in closer. "She bought it. Even said it was a good idea, can you believe it? Every ship is always run through diagnostics before deployment. But, luckily for us, war makes you paranoid!"
"Hm. That's cute," murmured Steven. He felt strange saying such a thing. From Peridot's memory, he wondered if he knew the same Topaz. He wondered the same about Peridot.
In this moment, he wondered what Peridot and Topaz were like together, then and now. How were they before they met? What else has changed about them, and why? What was left behind?
Why did happiness have to be one of those things?...
It was a sudden interjecting thought that stunned his stream of consciousness. His mind wandered, wondered if the thought had any credence.
As he was searching, a cork board he didn't notice before took his attention. It was next to Peridot's desk, on a stack of boxes, leaning against the cave's wall. Photos were tacked to it. they were black and white-mostly black-and grainy with x- and y-axes framing the images, whatever they were. There were 13 in total.
"We talk about the future, too," said Peridot. "We talk about things." It was subtle, but her giddiness wasn't in what she just said, and Steven questioned if he actually picked up on it.
He asked anyway. "Peridot?" She looked up at him. "Are you... happy here?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"
Steven tried to shake away any implication that he thought otherwise. "Ok. I just thought-"
"Why would I still be here if I wasn't?"
"I-I just... It's nothing. Just wanted to make sure."
"I'm not a fan of the location. It's dry and hot, and there's too much sand. And scorpions suck. But, Topaz likes it out here... Do I give you the impression that I'm unhappy?"
Steven hopped down from Peridot's chair. "Well... I just want to make sure that you two aren't fighting so much."
"Everyone argues."
"Right. But, sometimes it's felt more than that..."
Peridot seemed to wait for Steven to say more. But, then she said, "We've had our issues, and we're working through them." Steven nodded. "I've known Topaz for a long time. And this is the most calm she's been in... a long time. I believe that part of it is that we're both still adjusting to our new lives. This planet is completely unlike Homeworld. I mean, look at me now." She gestured over to her desk. "I've only now created a comfort zone reminiscent of my former life. It takes time to find your place."
"I guess so," Steven agreed.
"Topaz is coming around. She helps me on big projects. Granted, there's only been the tower, but still."
Steven traded places with Peridot and let her jump up into her chair. She swivelled around to her computer. The way she sat hunched over, not fully docked at her desk, pulled at Steven. "I haven't seen you in person in a while." He wouldn't tell Peridot, but this was one of the reasons he suspected her of being unhappy.
"I know. I just get caught up in things going on here and end up thinking about visiting too late."
"You know you're always welcome."
"I know."
"I really like seeing you, and everyone else would, too." Peridot scoffed. "Even Lapis. She misses watching shows with you."
"What I'd give to see the look on her face when Percy proposed. She must be getting on terribly without me."
Steven chuckled, "Everyone is getting on terribly without you!"
Peridot was laughing. "Garnet has likely forgotten how to speak entirely!"
"And, without you, Pearl's even forgotten how to wash dishes!" That one was a real knee-slapper and Steven buried his face on Peridot's desk, crumpling his lungs in how much he was laughing. When he wiped the tears from his eyes, though, Peridot wasn't laughing and looked like somebody had slapped her in the face. "I-it was just a joke, Peridot. Pearl still washes the dishes three times a day!"
She didn't respond. Steven turned and followed her gaze past him.
His heart tumbled out of his chest and smacked against the cavern floor. Without it, his backbone caved.
Silhouetted in the mouth of the cave was Topaz. The green from Peridot's desktop illuminated the contours of her face and reflected off of her eyes. A gargoyle in the green, and blocking the way of the light at the end of the tunnel, she had the nostril flare of that monster dimension from whence she came, and wafting in with her poured the hot plume of stink. Her stone shoulders rose and fell like locomotive pistons starting up to pull the train.
"Topaz..." warned Peridot. "If you do anything to him... I will make your life a living hell..."
"I'm just going to talk to him," she said.
"If you even..."
Topaz chugged over to the desk. "I'm just going to talk to him..."
"Don't you dare!" Peridot jumped down from her chair and got in front of Steven.
Topaz threw whatever she had in her hands to the side. "I'm just going to talk to him." She reached out.
"Stop it, Topaz! Stop it! You let him go right now!" Topaz had Steven by the shirt collar and Peridot grabbed Topaz's arm as hard as she could. Steven apologized and tried not to fight back, but Topaz was having none of it.
Topaz pulled Peridot off of herself, and lifted Steven up. "I'm just. Going. To talk. To him." Then, without looking down, she said, "Then I'm going to talk to you when I'm done."
Peridot kept jumping and screaming at Topaz to put Steven down. She was too small to stop her and Topaz had Steven out of her reach. Topaz said, "You aim to take her away from me? That your game?"
"Never!" said Steven.
"PERIDOT, SHUT UP! If you take this away from me, I will come after you and take everything you know and love. I will destroy you, as you destroyed me. And I'm just going to watch as you crumble." Her breath smelled like a gargoyle's and her fist was like steel.
Once they were out of the cave, Topaz jumped high into the air without hesitation, leaving Peridot behind. She hooked the ledge of the cliff and hoisted Steven over.
Steven said to her, "I just wanted to see her! I missed her! Please, don't blame Peridot!"
Topaz shook him to shut him up. "How can I say this as clearly as possible? I don't like you. I don't like you being here. Show your face here again and I will beat you down." She pulled him in real close. "Nothing will stop me. Not you. Not your Crystal Gems. Not Peridot. This is your final warning."
Neither of them said anything all the way over to the warp pad. Steven wanted this over as soon as possible.
Topaz threw him down. "Go."
He picked himself up from the sand and got on the warp pad. "I've only ever tried to help you," he said. "Please don't-"
"I said go."
Forced to swallow his heart, Steven left Topaz and the Kindergarten and warped into his living room.
Pearl remarked that he wasn't gone long. She asked him why he was so dirty.
Steven told the Gems everything. He knew Topaz and Peridot were fighting as he spoke. Grayness colored his sight and made him want to cry. If he'd done anything more it would have only made things worse. The Gems told him that.
Without another word, Garnet chugged over to the warp pad and folded her arms. She vanished.
Steven stayed up that night crying. Garnet wasn't gone long, but it was dark when she got back. Steven didn't say anything because he didn't want to talk or hear what happened. He just wanted to stay in his bed and cry.
...
The next day, Garnet told him that he was free to come and go as he pleased to the Beta Kindergarten, that he needn't worry about Topaz anymore. The thing was, it didn't really please him to be able to do so.
...