You're Too Important
The three gems stared out at the ruins of Rose's healing spring, unmoving. After a few seconds, Garnet quickly summoned her gauntlets and stepped off the warp pad. The tall gem proceeded slowly, looking around at the rubble for anything that appeared to be threatening. Garnet noticed that vines had once again overtaken the majority of the rubble, covering them in dense foliage. The red gem turned and motioned for the other gems to follow her. Amethyst and Pearl looked at one another nervously before following their leader. Feeling very unsettled by the situation, Amethyst pulled her whip from her gem and took up the rear of the procession, looking around for any sign of danger. Pearl tried desperately to maintain her composure, holding Steven closer to her. After a few minutes of exploring, Garnet motioned for the other gems to stop. Seeing her signal, Amethyst and Pearl came to a halt.
Amethyst looked over at Steven, and then up at Garnet. She had no idea what could have caused so much damage in such a short time, but guessed that the Homeworld gem was responsible.
"So, what do we do now?" she asked, unsure of how they should proceed.
"It's no use!" Pearl exclaimed, tears forming in her eyes. "Rose's fountain is gone! There's nothing we can do save Steven. It's hopeless!" At that, the pale gem burst into sobs.
"Pearl!" Garnet exclaimed harshly. "Pull yourself together!"
"Pearl froze, staring at the stoic gem, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"G-Garnet, how could you be so…calm right now?" Pearl stuttered. "Rose's fountain has been destroyed, and Steven's gem is cracked. How are you not worried?"
"I'm very worried about Steven. But we need to remain calm. We need to be strong and work together. It's our only hope of saving him." Pearl looked at Garnet for a few seconds before nodding and wiping her eyes.
Amethyst allowed her whip to vanish. "So…you have a plan?" the purple gem inquired.
"Yes," Garnet replied. "Though the outside of the fountain was destroyed, there's a chance that whatever did this didn't destroy the pool itself. There could be some of Rose's essence left in the fountain. If we can find a way inside, we might be able to heal Steven.
"So…you and I fuse and bust our way through?" Amethyst offered.
"No," Garnet replied, "that won't work. If we form Sugilite, we might destroy the fountain entirely. We need to be careful. Pearl, you and Amethyst should fuse. Opal could probably get through."
Amethyst and Pearl looked at one another and nodded. Pearl walked over to the remains of a stone wall. Being as careful as possible, the pale gem knelt down and propped Steven against the wall, making sure that he wouldn't fall over. After looking at the injured boy for a moment, Pearl stood and walked back to Amethyst. The two gems stood facing each other. Without warning, the pair began dancing, preparing to fuse into Opal.
As the two danced, they moved closer to one another. Pearl pirouetted, but tripped, interrupting the dance and causing her to fall flat on her face. Pearl turned to see a vine coiling itself around her leg. Without hesitation, Pearl summoned her spear and severed the creeping tendril. At that, more vines sprang from the rocks, lashing out at the trio.
"What did you do?!" Amethyst yelled as she re-summoned her weapon and dodged an incoming vine.
"I don't know!" Pearl responded, frantically slicing at the vines, which seemed to be growing in number. "We can't fight these things. We need to get Steven out of here."
Garnet glanced over at the young gem leaning against the wall. At this rate, the vines were going to overwhelm them in a matter of minutes. If that happened, Garnet knew that they would have no hope of saving Steven in time. With extreme reluctance, the tall gem unfused into Ruby and Sapphire in a desperate attempt to save the unconscious boy.
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Sapphire asked her companion.
"Yeah!" Ruby replied, struggling with several vines. "Just get him away from here. Amethyst, Pearl, and I will catch up with you."
Sapphire nodded before getting to her feet and dashing towards Steven, narrowly avoiding several lashing vines. Sapphire quickly stopped to pick up the young gem before sprinting away as quickly as she could, not daring to look back."
After running for a minute, Sapphire stopped to gather her wits. The vines nearby didn't seem to be aggressive, but she needed to remain on guard for anything suspicious. The blue gem looked at the boy she was carrying, before looking around at the rubble. She needed to find a way to the fountain. After looking for a few seconds, Sapphire failed to see anything that resembled an entrance, and continued her run around the perimeter of the ruins.
After running for another couple of minutes, Sapphire paused. The gem walked over to a pile of rubble and knelt down. Sure enough, there was a gap that looked large enough for her and Steven to fit through. Sapphire carefully helped Steven through the crevice. Sapphire didn't know if the dark, rocky fissure would lead to the fountain, but knew that it was Steven's only hope. Taking a deep breathe, the blue gem entered the dark tunnel, holding Steven close.
As Sapphire crawled through the tunnel with Steven in tow, she listened carefully for anything that could be dangerous. Much to her relief, the only sound she could hear was Steven's belabored breathing. The young gem didn't sound well. Sapphire knew he didn't have much time left. Looking up, the blue gem saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
Emerging from the crevice, Sapphire found herself standing at the edge of Rose's fountain. The ancient sanctuary was in terrible disrepair. The statue of Rose had been destroyed; all that remained of the once proud monument were several chunks of jagged stone. The basin itself had also been damaged, and Sapphire doubted that there was anything left of Rose's tears. Peering down into the bottom of the fountain, Sapphire looked around for several seconds before gasping. At the very bottom of the basin, she could make out something glistening in a small crack in the stone.
Being careful not to hurt Steven, who's breathing had become even more erratic, Sapphire slid down into the bottom of the fountain, walked up to the small, shining fissure, and knelt down. Much to her relief, the shining substance was liquid: Rose's tears. The blue gem carefully put Steven down and lifted up the bottom of his shirt, exposing his damaged gem. The blue gem then undertook extracting the magical liquid from the crevice with her hands. After several attempts, Sapphire managed to cup a few drops of Rose's lacrimal essence into her hands. She turned to Steven's prone form and let the few drops she managed to accumulate drip onto his cracked gem. Sapphire then pulled his shirt back down and waited for the boy's gem to regenerate.
Nothing happened.
After a few seconds, Sapphire became worried. Rose's essence had always been able to heal any injury or gem. She couldn't understand why Steven's gem wasn't regenerating. The blue gem looked up at what once had been Rose's statue.
Had they been too late?
A small cough drew Sapphire's attention back to Steven. The gem watched as the young boy opened his eyes slowly, blinked, and looked up at her.
"Sapphire? Where am I? Where's Ruby? Where are Amethyst and Pearl and dad and Connie?"
"Steven, you're okay!" Sapphire stated, letting out a sigh of relief. "We're at Rose's fountain. It's been destroyed, but I was able to get some of her tears to heal you. Ruby, Amethyst and Pearl are fighting some magic vines. We should go."
The blue gem helped Steven to his feet. Looking up at the remnants of his mother's statue, Steven became saddened, tearing up. He lifted his shirt briefly to get a better look at his gem. Much to his relief, the pink stone in his navel was in immaculate condition. However, much to the young boy's dismay, none of his other injuries had healed.
"Why am I still hurt?" the young gem inquired. "Don't mom's tears heal everything?"
Sapphire turned towards the perplexed boy. "I don't know. I think there was only enough to heal your gem. Now, come on." Without warning, the blue gem grabbed Steven's good arm and began to lead him out of the fountain.
Elsewhere, Ruby, Amethyst, and Pearl were having a very difficult time. The vines had been continuously attacking them since Sapphire had left with Steven, and they were beginning to wear out. The creeping vines had surrounded the trio, preventing their escape.
"How are we going to get out of this one?" Pearl yelled, desperately hacking away at the ever-encroaching vines with her two spears. "These things just keep coming!"
Amethyst looked over at her comrade. Suddenly, an Idea came to the purple gem.
"Pearl, we need to fuse."
Pearl looked over at her comrade, who was busy fighting off vines with her whip.
"How are we going to complete the dance? It takes time to fuse.
Amethyst looked over at Ruby, who was struggling to break free of several vines that had entangled her, before turning her attention to an incoming vine.
"I don't know, P. Can't you distract them by making some holo-nerds or something?"
Pearl gave Amethyst an annoyed look before realizing that her suggestion might save them. Quickly jumping out of the reach of the vines, Pearl summoned multiple holo-pearls, which proceeded to draw spears and charge at the vines. Using the distraction to her advantage, Ruby broke free from the vines and quickly made her way over to Pearl. Amethyst quickly spin-dashed through several vines, and ran over to the other two. Not wanting to wait for the vines to finish off the holo-pearls, the trio quickly ran off towards the warp pad.
As the three ran forward, Ruby looked over at Amethyst and Pearl.
"We need to go back. We need to find Sapphire!"
As if to answer Ruby's concern, a blue shape barreled into the red gem, sending a salmon-colored object flying into Amethyst. Pearl turned and looked at the two piles of gems on the ground.
"Ruby!" Sapphire exclaimed. The two gems embraced and began to dance, quickly
re-fusing into Garnet.
"Amethyst! Guys!" Steven yelled as Amethyst helped him to his feet. A big smile came to the young boy's face as he gave the purple gem a one-armed hug.
"Hey, buddy. Good to see ya," Amethyst replied, returning the hug.
"We should probably go," Garnet stated, looking at the creeping vines advancing towards the group. Without hesitation, Amethyst picked Steven up and began sprinting towards the warp pad. The gems ran as quickly as they could towards the warp pad, the botanical scourge following close behind. The group reached the warp pad, warping away just as the deadly tendrils reached them.
In the warp, the four breathed a collective sigh of relief.
"Whew, that was close," Pearl said, unsummoning her spear. The pale gem turned towards Steven, who was adjusting the patch on his eye. "Steven, I'm so glad you're alright. You had me so worried. Don't ever scare me like that again! Why didn't you tell us your gem was cracked? You could have died!"
"I'm sorry, Pearl. I didn't think it would get so bad."
The warp suddenly ended, depositing the four gems back on the beach. Steven looked up at Garnet, who was staring out at the tents on the sand.
"So, what do we do now? Do you think the gem is still trying to do…whatever she was trying to do?" Steven asked.
Garnet looked down at the young gem, and grinned.
"First, you should go see Greg. I'm sure he's worried about you." Garnet adjusted her shades. "And yes, I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of the Homeworld gem."
"By the way, thanks for saving me Garnet."
Garnet picked up Steven and placed him on her shoulder. The red gem stood on the warp pad for a few minutes, looking into the tumultuous future ahead of them.