Author's note: Thank you for the reviews! They made me smile today and made my day a little better! I don't really have much else to say right now as a general thing so, oh well.
NighttimePhilosopher: I understand how you might not know where the story's going since I honestly haven't decided yet myself. I tend to just figure it out as I go along and see where I lead myself. I'm glad to read that you're enjoying so far though!
VonSmore: Thank you! A concern of mine is trying to keep them in character so hopefully that continues. I love Peri too, she's what inspired me to write something because she's just such an interesting character, not to mention adorable!
KimDWil71: Thank you! Lapis may join them later on, I haven't decided yet.
Plz make more: Thank you!
Later that same day, nothing much had happened. After the argument between Pearl and Peridot no one had talked much and the house had been awkwardly quiet. The silence was broken only by Peridot occasionally inquiring what an unfamiliar object was and Steven's explanation. However, this too soon stopped when Peridot settled down with the tablet that Steven had given her to consult the creature he'd called "Google" with more of her questions. While she'd had the tablet at the barn, there wasn't any internet out there what with it being a barn in the middle of the country, and the only internet connection she would occasionally find worked poorly at best.
Well, that would be a potential plus to moving here with the Crystal Gems. It would be much easier to learn more about Earth with access to the Internet and Steven's knowledge. He has a point that all my stuff could be moved here with me, I guess. But wouldn't Lazuli be lonely? Well, I suppose we could leave her a note. I'm sure she'd find it the next time she came to the barn. Maybe she'd like this better anyway, she'd wanted her own space from the start. Peridot thought, momentarily distracted by Steven opening the fridge and rummaging through it looking for something.
But then there's the issue of whether or not I'm actually wanted here. Steven clearly wants me here. Garnet seems to be content to let me decide on my own and will likely be most accepting of whatever I choose. Amethyst I can't tell with, but I would guess she wants me here since she seemed to want me to come visit at least. So really it's only Pearl who doesn't seem to be that pleased with the thought of me living here. Although, she's just a pearl, why should I feel held back by her? Bad Peridot, she's not just a pearl, at least, not to Steven. I don't want to cause more fights and make him upset. After all, aren't the Crystal Gems supposed to be here to protect him now? Well, I suppose I am too since I betrayed Yellow Di- Peridot's thoughts were cut short by Amethyst's voice breaking through the silence of the house.
"Hey! Peri! Are you in there?"
"In where?"
Amethyst sighed. "Did you hear anything I just said?"
"Um… No. I was thinking. Sorry."
"It's fine, it wasn't important anyway. What were you thinking about?" Amethyst asked, plopping down on the couch beside Peridot.
"Oh! Uh… I was just thinking about what I wanna do and-wait where's Steven?" Peridot started to say before sitting up abruptly and looking around.
Amethyst shrugged. "He goes out to get food and stuff sometimes. He can handle himself."
"Is it safe for him to be wandering around by himself? What if something attacked him?"
"He has a shield! And besides, he can handle himself and knows everyone in town. There's nothing to worry about!"
"Unless homeworld decides to destroy us."
"That's been a looming threat for centuries, Peridot." Pearl interjected from her seat on the floor on the other side of the room.
"That just means that it's more likely to happen soon!"
"Where would you get that idea? After Rose… There's no reason for them to come after us now. Well except for the Cluster since it will never follow through on their plan now…"
"If they want the planet then they're not going to give up this easily." Peridot pointed out.
"Maybe, but there's no use in worrying about it, besides-" Amethyst started to say only to stop when Steven walked in carrying a box of pizza. "Hey, Steven! Did you bring me something back with you?"
Steven nodded and passed her the box. "Yeah! It's your favorite, Amethyst! What were you talking about before I walked in?" He questioned.
"Eh, nothing major. Don't worry about it."
"Yes, absolutely nothing to worry about. Everything will be fine. Which is why we don't need to talk about it anymore, let's talk about something else." Pearl suggested swiftly.
"So something is definitely happening that should be worried about." Steven replied, sitting down on the other side of Peridot.
"No, no, no, no! Everything is absolutely fine!" Pearl laughed nervously.
"Pearllllll, I can handle it! I mean, I've handled everything else so far just fine!"
Pearl didn't respond and just sighed instead. She didn't want Steven to worry but she didn't really want to keep not telling him things again. She was grateful to be stopped from having to answer when Garnet returned to the main part of the house from her room.
"Drop what you're doing, we have a mission." Garnet announced.
"What is it?" Pearl asked, leaping to her feet.
"There will be a serpent like corrupted gem near Empire City very soon. If left unchecked it could end up attacking some of the city and it's citizens."
"Great, let's go! Well it's not great but… You know what I mean." Amethyst exclaimed, getting up to join them with Steven close behind her.
"I'll, uh, just wait here then." Peridot said awkwardly, curling up on the couch with her tablet to get comfortable.
"Oh no you don't, you're coming with us. That's part of the point of this, isn't it? For you to get experience helping us on missions? And getting used to being around us so you can decide if you'd like to stay here with us, of course." Garnet pointed out, leading the others to the warp pad where they all paused to wait on Peridot.
Peridot hesitated for a moment, looking at all of them carefully. Pearl just looked anxious to get going, Amethyst appeared to be excited to have something to do, Steven's expression was practically begging her to come with them, and Garnet was somehow expressionless. The glasses probably helped with that. Although, she probably already knew what Peridot's decision would be so this whole dilemma for her on whether or not to go with them was really unnecessary. Honestly though, what would she do if she were to stay there by herself? While there's plenty around the house to investigate, there wouldn't be anyone to answer her questions and without pictures it might be difficult to get Google to understand her questions.
"Ok, I'll come." Peridot decided, setting the tablet back down. She rose from the couch and joined them on the warp pad, still not entirely sure how she would be of any help on this at all.
The gems warped to a location slightly west of Empire City, not quite where the corrupted gem was currently, but where it would be soon. The plan was to cut it off instead of trying to chase it. They stepped off the warp pad and took up defensive positions like they usually would. Peridot felt out of place and glanced around at them uncertainly until Amethyst beckoned her over. Amethyst handed her a few jagged shards of metal, earning yet another confused look from Peridot.
"What's this for?" Peridot asked.
"I thought you might want it for your metalbending thing or whatever it is you do. So, here." Amethyst shrugged.
Peridot frowned uncertainly and held up a hand, joining the shards together into a larger jagged piece of metal and then taking it from Amethyst. "Uh, thanks, I guess."
"Oh wow…" Pearl breathed as the corrupted gem crested the hill. It was primarily red and resembled a large snake, much like how humans would imagine a wingless dragon to look.
Amethyst and Peridot turned their attention to the creature and watched for a moment, waiting for the que from Garnet. The serpent slithered closer, moving smoothly one moment and then freezing to thrash about the next. It seemed to be in pain. The creature began to thrash for a second time, snapping at the air in front of it with its eyes rolling wildly, casting its gaze about in a futile attempt to find whatever it believed was causing it pain.
Steven couldn't help but wish once again that he'd been able to figure out how to heal Centi so he could help unfortunate gems like this one. He hoped he'd be able to heal them some day soon.
The Crystal Gems were stopped from their observation of the creature when it calmed again and Garnet darted forward towards its tail, her gauntlets already summoned. The serpent spotted her nearly immediately and spun to follow her, snapping its jaws shut only an inch or two behind her. As soon as the creature's head was turned, Pearl sprung from the cover of the boulder she'd been hiding behind and threw her spear approximately towards where the base of the creature's neck would be, drawing another spear from her gem as the first one struck. The thrown spear shattered on contact with the creature, causing Pearl to pause. While at first glance the serpent didn't appear to have scales or any form of protection for itself, closer inspection revealed that the length of its back was covered in scales, layered to protect its body.
"We need to flip it over somehow!" Pearl called out.
"On it!" Amethyst yelled, shifting to her wrestler alter ego, Purple Puma, and rushing forward at the serpent.
As Amethyst neared the corrupted gem it flicked its tail catching her in the side and throwing her off balance. She growled and grabbed at the tail, trying to catch hold of it. She missed as it lashed away from her as the serpent continued to thrash about, trying to catch Garnet who was distracting it and dodging its attacks while occasionally throwing in a punch or two. As the tail flicked back next to Amethyst she snatched it pulled, trying to flip it over. Garnet tricked it into rolling itself over by running to the side while Amethyst held it, efficiently flipping it over.
Amethyst and Garnet worked together to keep the serpent held down, struggling some as it continued to thrash in an attempt to free itself. At some point Pearl at warned Steven to stay back and Peridot had just been watching, partially horrified and partially just unsure of what to do. Pearl ran towards the creature and leapt onto it, trying to position herself so she could poof it with an attack to its belly. The creature's thrashing kept throwing her off balance and she found herself unable to get a steady enough aim to be able to have enough force to poof the corrupted gem.
"Hold it steady!" Pearl called to the other two.
"Easy for you to say!" Amethyst replied, trying to prevent the creature from flipping itself back over.
"Peridot! Use the metal shard to impale it!" Garnet suggested.
"What?! I'm not good enough at controlling this thing to-" Peridot started to protest.
"You have to try, Peridot! Pearl can't get to where she can hit it properly and Amethyst and I are a bit preoccupied here!"
Peridot moved to get a better angle, clutching the metal shard in her hand. Pearl managed to gesture to where she should try to it, nearly striking the serpent in the process but it moved again before she got the chance. Peridot got the shard to float in the air beside her, waiting for an opening. The serpent relaxed slightly for a moment and she sent the shard soaring through the air, ready to impale it. To her horror, the serpent moved just before the shard struck, causing Pearl to lose her balance and fall in the way of the shard. Peridot tried to stop the shard in time but instead it impaled both Pearl and the serpent. The serpent poofed and Pearl fell to the ground next to its gem, the metal shard sticking out of her back.
"Tell Steven I'll be back soon, ok?" Pearl asked Garnet quietly. Garnet nodded as Peridot, Amethyst, and Steven ran up to them.
Peridot was attempting to get the shard to come back to her but the distress the whole event was causing her was making it so she couldn't do anything. "I-I didn't mean to." She whimpered. This was great. Great way to prove that she could handle going on missions with them. Just because Pearl was her least favorite didn't mean she'd wanted to do this.
Pearl started to say something else but instead shook her head and poofed, leaving the shard of metal lying on the ground beside her gem and the corrupted gem. Garnet picked up the corrupted gem, bubbled it, and sent it back to the Temple.
"It's all right Peridot, she will be back soon. It was the best way to handle this situation." Garnet told her, trying to be reassuring.
Steven picked up Pearl's gem carefully and looked at the others sadly. "How long do you think it'll take for her to reform this time?"
"You never know with her." Amethyst shrugged.
"How long did it take last time?" Peridot asked worriedly.
"Two weeks." Steven replied, looking down.
"Well, Steven, in the true sense of time that's not long at all. She'll be back before you know it!" Peridot replied, trying to look on the bright side.
"For you guys it isn't. You've all existed for centuries!"
"C'mon Steven, let's just get home and set her down, ok?" Amethyst said, starting back towards the warp pad. The others followed quietly and returned to the Temple. As soon as they got back Steven went to find the blanket he'd used to wrap around Pearl's gem the last time she poofed and wrapped her gem up again and set it down where he thought it would be safe.
Author's Note: I hope you all are enjoying my story! Reviews make my day and make me smile! I will gladly accept any constructive criticism anyone has to offer as I am always looking to improve. Thanks for reading!