Steven's been tolerating Spodumene's odd tests. The new food she's been giving him has only made him sick once, and although not all of the flavors were as nice as the granola bar-esque original Peridot provided him, the variety has been welcome. She took samples of his spit, and his blood, but the former was easy and the latter merely reminded him of a trip to the doctor.
It's all been pretty alright, until she moved him. Now he's feeling a little nervous.
It's colder in the lab, and the granite table he's seated on is sucking all the warmth out of his bare thighs. She's got his shirt, shoes, and socks off too, but at his insistence, she allowed him to keep his underwear. He's glad about that, at least.
Tiny stickers were placed all over his body the last time she was in the room, circling his gem, put on his pulse points, his forehead, his back and chest. She warned him not to remove them, and to try not to move his eyes too much. He's not sure what to think of that last note, but it's a little frightening. He doesn't really want to know what will happen if he moves his eyes.
He sits for about 10 minutes, as still as he can- but forgetting several times- before the door slides back open and Spodumene comes strolling in, followed by Jasper.
He glances instinctively to the side before realizing his mistake and looking straight ahead.
Spodumene doesn't comment, walking past him to her computer.
"Okay Steven," she says after a moment, "please stop staring at the wall and look at me- you can forget what I said, earlier."
Relieved, Steven turns his head towards the gangly gem, keeping Jasper in his peripherals.
"Please stand on the table, Steven... Jasper is here for my safety," she says, looking up from her notes, "I need you to summon your shield for me."
"I don't know how to summon my shield," Steven frowns.
"I saw you," Jasper says.
"I know, it just happens sometimes!" Steven mutters, "You were going to blast my friends."
Jasper and Spodumene exchange a quiet look. Steven doesn't like that at all.
After a moment, Spodumene shakes her head.
"Not yet," she tells Jasper, before turning her attention back to Steven, "why don't you try for me?"
She leans close for a moment, touching his shoulder with ice cold fingers and squeezing painfully hard. He peers at her gem, where he can almost see- not for the first time- a dark cloud swirling inside. Spodumene steps back, waiting expectantly.
A couple minutes pass. Steven concentrates, staring at his gem, but it stays dark, lifeless.
Jasper huffs impatiently, stepping around Spodumene. Steven panics, protesting, sure she's going to fetch Pearl and do something awful to her if he can't stop her.
Instead, a large red fist swings at his head.
Steven flinches back, his bubble forming automatically. Jasper's punch connects with a loud crack and the bubble shoots towards the wall, slamming Steven into it. His defense disappears as he falls with a groan onto the floor.
Spodumene's mouth falls open, providing a clear view of her jagged teeth.
"Jasper, I did not mean for you to hit him!"
"He was closer than the pearl," she mutters, "but I can fetch her, if you need."
"No, that's fine for now," she says, grabbing Steven by the arm and roughly hauling him to his feet; by her smile, she seems to think she's doing him a service by helping him to stand.
"What was that?" She asks.
"Uhm, my bubble?" He tells her, "I can summon my bubble again, if you want."
"Sure," she says, patiently, "we'll start with the bubble."
...
Peridot pulls her hands from the controls, sighing happily as the ship drops back onto solid ground. She's successfully retrieved her data, she wasn't broken by the looney human, and hopefully soon, Earth will crack open, revealing the Cluster, so that she never has to deal with it again.
She excuses the citrines, who are waiting patiently by her door, allowing them to rejoin service under Yellow Diamond. She's in the home stretch now anyway- only three warps away from their planet.
Lion watches her warily from the doorway, waiting until she turns towards him to duck out of sight and slink around the corner. Once the footsteps have passed his hiding spot, he follows, making short bursts of speed between hallways so that he can move again if she turns around. He waits outside the mainframe center for her to register some data, then follows her, finally, out onto the surface of the planet. The door begins to close sooner than he'd like, and he's forced to jump onto the edge while it shuts, rebounding off the ship and landing as quietly as he can on the sharp stones of the median planet.
It's not quietly enough; Lion crawls quickly under the lowest part of the ship, keeping behind its surface points. Peridot glances backwards, but dismisses the sound after a moment as the door shutting. She walks over to the warp pad, stepping one foot onto the slick surface. Lion takes his chance.
With a sprint, he leaps into the space above the pad as Peridot activates the warp, landing above her in the stream. Overestimating the speed it would go, he finds himself a fair distance above her, and can't reach down to swipe at her like he planned. Instead, Lion turns, caught in the zero gravity pull of the warp, and hangs uselessly overhead.
Peridot looks up in horror, pupils constricting in fear. Her mouth drops open as the warp stops, and Lion finds gravity take him over once more.
He drops, twisting, onto the startled green gem.
Lion rolls off her, galloping towards the next pad and jumping once more into the stream of the unfortunate gem occupying it.
This warp, he's closer, and as the terrified topaz registers that there's a creature in the stream with her, he reaches a paw out, snagging her under the jaw with his claws and pulling her quickly up. Lion bites the wriggling gem's neck as the warp ends, and materializes in a cloud of gem remains. The topaz clatters onto the warp, retreated, and Lion sprints for his final warp, coughing out a portal to carry him closer and more stealthily to the distant pad.
The gems he passes before jumping through the portal jump back in surprise. There are shouts from the newer ones, but a heavy silence falls between the older gems as they share horrified looks.
Whatever that thing was, it was pink.
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A/N: Thanks to those who have reviewed so far! They're highly appreciated.