Everything about the situation told Peridot to run, but for some reason, her limbs refused to acknowledge her mental request. Her small hands were trembling, but nothing made her move despite seeing the ominous shape in the waves. The figure in the whirlpool of water roared loudly enough to momentarily shake the ground; that had finally been enough to shake Peridot out of her stance and onto the ground, laying on her stomach. She stood up on her knees and her floating fingers gripped the sand tightly as she watched in frozen terror at the scene unfolding before her.
The liquid lapped around her sides and before Peridot realized the water was practically touching the trees behind her, she was already sucked in by the waves. The force pulling her towards the deep was to strong to resist, so she activated the weighted system in her boots- well the one good boot- and managed to sink herself to the floor. Sand enveloped around her foot, but luckily she didn't sink. It was a lucky thing also that gems didn't need air to breath, or else she would have found herself in a terrible situation.
"But then again, its not as though im not in a terrible situation as of this moment." Her inner voice offered, but it brought her senses back to her. She still felt panicked, but this time she didn't let it overtake her.
Now that she was below the waves, she could see the water pulses individually, as well as their origin. But the sand had now made the water to dark to see clearly, and it was only when she placed her visors back on did she see the outline of what was creating the turbulence. A large, multiple armed figure, screeched and howled as the chains of water attempted to wrap themselves around her, but were breaking off after each one had been successfully placed.
" YOU CAN'T CONTROL ME! ILL MAKE YOU PAY, YOU WATER BRAT!"
The light colored beast ripped some of the chains with a free hand, its face seemed to twitch and squirm, as one half aimed to calm the other.
"No-NO!" A slightly more feminine voice cried from the creature. Water engulfed the face of the screaming fusion in a last ditch effort to silence it, but it wasn't enough. A white light surfaced from Malachite and the previously steady blue striped form began to quiver and change, until finally the two gems that created the fusion dispersed from one another.
Peridot, who was watching the scene in horror, managed to dash behind an alcove and kept her head low as she stared, wide mouthed at Lapis and Jasper. "How, why, who...what are they doing here?!" Her brows knitted together, contemplative. "So this is where they've been? They fused?!" It seemed like something Jasper, let alone Lapis, would never do-the large gem always thought lowly of their prisoner, didn't she? Her inner questions were trying to find inner answers, but she stopped to watch Jasper catch her breath and stand on her shaking legs.
" Ha—ha, haha—ha! You thought you could hold me down forever, huh? YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD HOLD ME DOWN?!" The tangerine colored gem roared at full volume.
Lapis, also trying to stand, outstretched her hands to her side and raised the ocean water that surrounded them up above their heads; she moved the water aside, trapping Jasper and herself in a water tunnel, so as to ensure the orange gem doesn't escape. Jasper, despite being absolutely exhausted began to move toward Lapis, first at a clumsy step, but then at a full run.
Her punch only hit the air as the water gem dove to the side and allowed a hand from the water wall to swat at her opponent, sending her flying. More hands wrapped around the violent warrior in an attempt to crush her form, but Jasper still managed to fight her way out of the hands' grasp and surprised the water gem with a kick that threw her across the ocean floor. Bruised and cut up, Jasper still managed to cackle as she once again ran forward to give another blow.
One more hit, and Lapis's form would be to badly damaged to continue. In desperation, she set a watery hand up above the incoming gem, and commanded it to slam right onto Jasper as she came mere feet away from Lapis. That was enough it seemed, as in an instant, the orange gem poofed into her needle like shard and fell into the sand. Realizing that she had won the fight, the blue gem fell to the ground from utter exhaustion and heaved a sigh, but managed to sit on her legs instead of completely collapsing. She grasped at the dark shard and was ready to crush it in her palm when a slight vibration on the loose floor caught her attention. She was sensitive about anything that moved in the water, which included the wet sand beneath her feet. It stilled, but Lapis knows that something about it wasn't right
Yet another vibration, and this time Lapis was able to pin point the source as something behind the alcove. A water hand reached from the wall and tried to grab the scrambling form, missing the first time, but not the second time as the thin form leaped to escape before catching on one of the hands.
Lapis's water hand took Peridot out from behind the alcove to get a better look in the light. The blue gem's anger surfaced once more as she saw the green gem squirming in the liquid grip, gasping and kicking at just about everything.
"You—tch—get—arghhh—let go of me!" The green gem spewed in her irritatingly high voice as she continued to struggle.
"You..."Lapis responded, her voice shaking with rage." I didn't think you would be so careless this time—but it looks like I get to kill to birds with one stone." She didn't smile, but she straightened her back and seemed to even relax slightly as the hand moved closer to the the ocean gem. Her gaze turned dark, her blue hand tightened into a fist; the water, acted on cue of the physical action made by Lapis, began to squeeze and tighten around the squirming green gem.
"Oh no, oh no oh no, she is going to crush me!" Peridot struggled even harder as she felt her torso and hips being crunched under the weight of the water. Her physical form could barely hold up under the pressure, and her fears were taking hold of her as she gasped. She didn't want to die, not on this planet, not because of this gem. She needed to get home, she needed to get back.
Terror engulfed Peridot as she suddenly couldn't get a breath in, as her arms went numb, she never felt so helpless before—she couldn't be so weak that she couldn't fight till the end, right? Her voice fell short as it tried to cry out in pain, but only another gasp escaped her. But she needed to say it, she needed to escape. She needed to see homeworld again. She had to survive.
"Wait, Lazuli!" Pain shot up her throat as she felt yet more pressure pinch her spine. But to Peridot's relief, the bone crushing pain had stopped. The water gem moved the hand down to eye level and sharpened her gaze.
" Listen-" Peridot choked slightly, still trying to catch her breath." You want to go back to homeworld, right?"
" That's not my home anymore." The blue gem murmured dangerously, savagely.
" You didn't see all of it, you only saw Yellow Diamond's reign of it."
" What do you mean?"
" Over at the Blue Diamond authority, nothing has changed since then. You are a part of the blue diamond authority right? Your records are not in our system so it must be in theirs."
"Your lying."
Peridot felt the immense pressure once again at her core.
"No—no im not!" Once again, the pain ceased.
" Why should I believe you? You took me prisoner, interrogated me, brought me back to this horrible place-"
" That wasn't me, I didn't do any harm to you!"
Another sudden force was applied to the already bent metal of Peridot's form
" Ow-ow-ow—look, if you go back to homeworld with me, ill show you!"
A firm, but puzzled look came about Lapis's face.
" How do I know this isn't some trick?"
She put some thought as to what she could say, after all, her answer would also be dependent on her life. But couldn't come up with any reason except," You will have to trust me."
The blue gem's glare returned, her gaze staring straight into the scared eyes of the technician.
" You and I both want to go home, and we can both do that. I just need your assistance!"
Lapis's glare did not soften, but she turned her head away to think about what Peridot has offered. She missed her beloved homeworld, and she would give anything to have it back. But was this true? Peridot didn't ever lay a hand on her, nor did she try to help her situation before. Not to mention the childish gem's loyalty was to no one other than her leader. But she could have easily taken advantage of Lapis while she was fighting Jasper a moment ago, and could have treated her worse on the ship. While Peridot was an unknown being to Lapis, she would do anything to go home. Her chest ached heavily at the thought; her only place of comfort was now possibly still in existence.
" What I wouldn't give to see home again." The gem's whisper was barely audible, and Peridot strained to hear it. In a flash however, the water that encircled Peridot released and fell to the ground, dropping the maniac as well. She sighed in relief and breathed, looking at her sides to see that they aren't horribly damaged—she can live with a few scratches on her metal arms and boots. Lapis looked down at her, feeling a slight hitch of anger and sorrow all at once at the thought of the old, loving homeworld being a fake, and warned," If I find out that you lied to me, I won't hesitate to kill you."
A shiver went down Peridot's spine, and she gulped hard despite her throat and neck aching terribly. She nodded with affirmation to Lapis's statement—it was the only thing she could do with her current, frightened state; not to mention the blue gem had a deep look of bitterness and anger aimed towards Peridot. She had to avoid saying anything that could incriminate her, especially now, knowing that all her previous words were nothing but lies. She came up with the most logical statement that would save her skin—and it did just that.
" I shouldn't worry though, once Yellow Diamond retrieves me, I won't have to worry about this." She felt a small grin tug at her lip but repressed it as to keep herself looking as neutral as possible.
"Confirmed." She said out loud, but noticed Lazuli was staring at the gem shard in her hand. It made Peridot feel somewhat uneasy, her escort was about to get crushed and yet here she is doing nothing about it. But then again, there was a part of her that disliked Jasper and her brashness; she would only get in the way of her plans to capture the crystal gems. Lapis's fingers closed on it once again, and as her grip tightened, a giant splash occurred behind them, and the water tunnel fell apart. It only took an instant for Peridot to see what was behind this new disturbance. It was plainly obvious since no other creature can distract or destroy Lapis's water manipulation so easily, it had to be a gem.
A corrupted gem.