A/N: This was all completed ages ago so pardon if any details conflict with canon. Also I keep forgetting ffnet likes to delete my damn page breaks so I'm going to edit the last chapter or two to fix that problem. This one should be ok. Thanks for reading/reviewing/following/favoriting!
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Steven starts, looking worriedly over to Lion.
"I forgot to let the Homeworld gems go!" Steven says, "We need to put them somewhere before we leave."
"I'll deal with them, when we're back on Earth," Chalcedony assures him.
"Nuh uh," Amethyst says; Chalcedony had made it pretty clear how the rebels dealt with the opposition, but Ruby made it clear that Homeworld wasn't much better- she doesn't know which situation is ideal, "I don't know if that's a good idea for anyone."
"But," Steven whimpers, "if we take them, it'll be like when they took us from our home. I didn't like that at all."
"Lapis wanted to go home, and you saw how that went," Amethyst counters, determined to compromise by not letting Chalcedony lay a hand on them, "Homeworld is not the best place to be sometimes."
Steven's lip shakes tellingly, and Amethyst wonders if it was best to bring Lapis into this.
"Why'd you grab them in the first place?" she mutters.
"The rebels kept trying to break them," Steven whispers; maybe bringing them back with the rebels is is a worse idea.
"Alright, get them out," Amethyst groans, while Chalcedony watches the perimeter.
Steven crawls in Lion's mane, sending gem after gem through and popping up occasionally for air. Chalcedony identifies which ones are her allies, for Steven to put back, and Amethyst insists they leave the two prisoners she freed in Lion. Steven stands beside a pile of bubbled gems, holding in his hands the pearl they found with the beryl, which he replaces in the mane, and Spodumene.
"We can't let Homeworld have that one," Chalcedony hisses, curling her lip.
Steven nods, putting her back in Lion's mane as well. She didn't seem to like whatever Homeworld was making her do sometimes anyway. The rebel leader nods, but casts a disapproving eye over all the gems they are leaving to bite them in the ass later.
"We need to deal with these-"
"They stay here," Steven says, "unharmed- they were only listening to their orders."
Amethyst is proud of her little boy's no nonsense tone; he has his own moral code, which he's not going to budge on, and she'll stand with him all the way, no matter what this nervous, impulsive gem wants to do.
Chalcedony is messing with the Crystal Gems vibe Amethyst likes so much.
Amethyst can't relax if she doesn't relax. Lion's taken the three of them who remain to a quiet spot as directed by Chalcedony. She's playing along, at least, letting them know where Pearl and Ruby will likely warp to, if they headed back the way they came, but she's not happy about it. Amethyst worries a little that this new direction by Steven will be the tipping point for how long she listens to him, but for now, Chalcedony continues to listen to both commands.
Amethyst has agreed to leave in the next 5 minutes or so if Pearl or Ruby don't come back. For now, where they'll arrive is limited. Apparently, warps don't really go everywhere like they tend to on Earth. Fortunately, there's a lot more compartmentalization on Homeworld, so warps go to few certain spots, and movement is easier to predict. Unfortunately, prediction goes both ways- it's only a matter of time until the informed gems on Homeworld narrow down their positions.
Chalcedony flinches backwards as the warp activates, and two axes appear in her hand.
"Pearl?" Steven whispers, running to greet Ruby as she rushes to get out of site before anyone comes by.
Amethyst pulls Steven back into their hiding spot, taking a proper look at what's going on as Ruby sets Pearl carefully down.
There's Ruby, crying; Pearl looks half-dead, with a long crack in her gem and a thin knife sticking out of her bloody gut; and there's Sapphire .
Amethyst shoves Ruby into the wall.
"What the fuck, you left and got Pearl hurt for this ?"
Ruby, guilty as she feels, is not about to have anyone criticize her decision right now. Furious, she pushes back, punching Amethyst in the left eye with her bare fist. Amethyst responds by roughly grabbing at Ruby, until a strong grip hauls her back by the arm. Chalcedony is not about to get caught over this; what's done is done.
"Don't fight, guys!" Steven whispers, helping the determined Pearl into a sitting position.
She brushes a shaky hand gently over his arm, other hand holding the knife so it doesn't shift in her abdomen.
He licks a hand, ready to press it to her gem, hoping with all his might that it works.
"Hey!" a gem yells, "It's the prisoners!"
Steven looks fearfully at the two gems a distance away from him. And at the spear heading right for his face.
Before he realizes what's happening, he's being shoved to the ground.
Pearl whimpers as the double assault of a spear to the back combines with the knife being pressed further into her stomach by the hilt's new pressure against the floor.
Her pain lasts only a second.
Then, it all goes away.
...
Chalcedony makes short work of the spear throwing gem. Working together, Ruby and Amethyst knock the second gem to the floor, retreating it.
"We have to leave," Chalcedony announces, "we're damn lucky neither of those gems released all the enemies we have sitting so foolishly beside us, but that doesn't mean more company isn't on the way."
Steven licks his hand once more, pressing it to the crack in Pearl's gem as he's hauled onto Lion's back. He watches, excitedly, as the crack, slowly but surely, begins to stitch itself together, smoothing out. Holding Pearl's gem by his stomach, grips tightly to Lion with his free hand as they go through portal after portal, jumping onto three warp pads in total, and phased away by Chalcedony's commands.
"Take a deep breath, Steven!" Ruby yells, on the last warp.
He does as he's told, holding it. He remembers this part, with Jasper.
That feels like a lifetime ago.
They materialize on the go between spot, where a familiar green ship lay waiting.
Steven stays on Lion as Ruby and Amethyst pile off, holding Pearl's uncracked gem happily towards Ruby.
She doesn't seem happy.
"Don't breathe until you're on the ship," she instructs, coughing lightly as her own gem biology adjusts to the atmosphere where they are, "and bubble Pearl, ok?"
She steps with Amethyst. This time, their grief, their anger, guilt- it's united. The turmoil of emotions slots perfectly together and they fuse into one large gem.
Their enraged punch shatters the warp with one hit.
He crinkles his eyebrows at them, confused, but Lion carries him through another portal until he's on the ship, with Chalcedony.
"What's wrong?" He asks, "We made it! Pearl's okay, see?"
"If she retreated with a cracked gem..." Chalcedony murmurs, "we should place her in Stasis, just in case. Go on, luv."
She hands Sapphire's remains to him once he's done as instructed.
"What happens if you retreat with a cracked gem?"
"You might not come back," she tells him, frankly, "if you do, it's usually... wrong."
His thoughts flash back to the temple.
The bubbled gems, all of them containing corrupted forms, monstrous, uncaring. His mom could heal, he bets she would fix anyone who got hurt, even if it meant having to fix them later.
Lion reappears with Ruby and Amethyst a moment later.
"Is Pearl... corrupted?" He asks.
They both look towards the floor. Chalcedony wanders off towards the interior of the ship, leaving them to talk.
"...I hope so," Amethyst says- she only knows about this stuff from second hand information, never having seen it happen to a gem, "I bet you can fix her, as long as she comes back."
Ruby's crying again.
She takes the two bubbles from Steven, holding them protectively as she follows after Chalcedony.
"Hey!" A familiar voice shouts.
Amethyst and Steven share a look, racing past Ruby.
Steven flinches back as he sees Chalcedony rip one of Peridot's limbs off, adding them to the growing pile. He relaxes as he realizes she's not being harmed by the action. She does look surprised though, clearly not able to fight back in the time it took her to register there was another gem in front of her.
"Peri-daahht!" Amethyst coos, trying to not think about Pearl for just a second, so she can get Steven home, "Great to see you- you're taking us back."
"I am not!" She yells.
Chalcedony punches her in the stomach, with her free hand. Peridot flails, held to the wall by the bigger gem, a good couple feet from the floor.
"Hey! Don't hurt her!"
"I barely touched her, she's just weak," Chalcedony shrugs, "peridots are technicians, not for fighting."
"That's why you shouldn't hit her at all," Steven pleads.
Peridot looks confused at the defense she's receiving from the boy they kidnapped.
"Yeah," she squeaks, "don't hit me at all."
"Are you hiding on the ship?" Amethyst asks, "You brought Lion here, didn't you?"
"It was an accident!" Peridot insists.
"Do you think Homeworld cares?" Ruby spits, lifting her left arm, holding Sapphire, higher, "You need to take us home, or one of us is going to break you."
That seems to terrify Peridot.
"Please?" Steven asks.
"Yeah, and you're going to fix whatever's gonna wreck Earth, while you're at it!" Amethyst threatens.
"One thing at a time, Ame," Ruby says.
"What's wrecking Earth?" Chalcedony repeats, wide eyed.
"It's not so bad," Ruby lies.
"Yeah, it is!" Peridot yells, "Don't make me direct you to that death planet."
"How about," Amethyst bluffs, "I let the other Peridot I kidnapped take us home, and I tie you up outside so you can watch the world end with you on it. Or, you can fix it."
"We're not interchangeable!" Peridot counters, angrily, "I am the expert on the Cluster."
She looks scared.
"I'll get us to Earth," Calcedony snarls, dropping Peridot, "we'll get her to help with whatever you've all been lying to me about later."
Amethyst pounces on the green gem, wrapping her in her whip for now.
"We won't poof you," Steven assures her, "you can help us if you want to, while you're free."
"There's not enough power to get us there," Peridot mutters.
"See, helping already!" Steven laughs, nervously.
"How much drift would we need?" Chalcedony asks.
Peridot sighs, caught. This gem does know how to pilot a ship, then.
"An extra half," she mutters, knowing she's just going to check the data anyway.
"Well that's not so bad." Chalcedony scoffs, dragging Peridot towards the control room of the ship.
"Do you think you might also have any more food?" Steven sighs, turning towards Lion.