** Author's Note: This chapter was written as part of a special two-part release in celebration of reaching this huge milestone - for the story as a whole, and particularly, for reaching this critical moment in the plot. Please be sure to read Chapters 30 and 31 as a pair.
30. Feeling Blue
This was not going to be the way things ended – Blue would make sure of that.
Never had she been so furious. Her Pearl returned once the alarms were disabled with two terrified Sapphires in tow – the doppelgangers of the blue gem that had just escaped her nearly sent Blue into a murderous rampage, slamming her fist against the back of her throne.
Her Pearl was difficult to read with her eyes hidden, but she was quivering in the presence of Blue's wrath. "We are going to see Yellow. At once. Sapphires, give me reports as we go."
They advanced down her personal hallway, Blue's eyes flaring as she listened to her Sapphire's incompetency.
Their voices were steadfast, but hinted just the slightest at anger; Blue assumed that was a product of her own radiating emotion, so she dismissed it. "There is little to be seen, My Diamond. When we look for the hybrid child, there is only static. Something is… wrong, blocking our vision. We can see other things, though. The Pursuant – um, the traitorous Pursuant – she flees to the Kindergarten that gave rise to the glorious Yellow Diamond."
That was not a satisfactory response. "What about the other traitors? Where is my Danburite?"
Hurrying to keep up with Blue Diamond's strides, the two Sapphires glanced nervously at each other behind their bangs. "I – we, don't know for sure – things are jumbled. Our apologies, our most lustrous Diamond," one of them said.
"We see only flashes… The human girl will lie dead; the defective Amethyst will be shattered; the Lapis Lazuli is untraceable, possibly dead. The fusion… she is too volatile. There are many futures where they unfuse, and each of those branch out exponentially into possibilities… The Danburite… she is enveloped in static, just like the child."
Blue Diamond pressed her lips together, her attitude oscillating from anger to cataclysmic fury. The plan she had forged to with Yellow would not be dark enough, would not be cruel or malefic enough for making a fool of her. They were going to suffer, and she was going to enjoy it.
Her Pearl opened another passageway, and they reached the warp pad. Blue closed her eyes and she, along with Pearl and the two Sapphires were whipped into a cold stream of light, only to rematerialize feet away from Yellow Diamond.
About to ascend the warp pad herself, Yellow withdrew her boot from above the stone surface and took a step back, watching Blue's corporeal form emerge from the stream, followed by some of her orderlies.
"Blue." Her voice was soft, relieved she had not been harmed, but the emotion was quickly replaced by her anger.
"Yellow." She bowed her head in greeting, but pulled her hood up to hide her frustration.
"All of you, leave us," Yellow gestured towards her Pearl and the small gems surrounding Blue as she led her off the pad. Offering her large hand, Blue accepted and they stood in the massive warp chamber as the others scurried towards the door. They were completely alone.
"Blue, what happened?" Yellow tried to repress the impatience in her voice.
Whatever anger she managed to smother, Blue took it up with ten times the intensity. She was so infuriated that she was shaking, and it was causing Yellow to boil a bit beneath the surface.
"Something is wrong, Yellow. The Sapphires visions, they're blocked, hazy, it's just like before. This has got to be White – she's done something, she's the only one who could do this I know it, I – " Yellow squeezed her hand gently to silence her, and then let the affectionate show drop along with Blue's hand.
"No, Blue, it's not possible. I assure you, she is dead. She can't control us anymore."
Raising both hands in front of her chest, a yellow orb appeared, filled with sparkling white shards. It made her feel both sick and proud to look at, so Blue turned away and placed a hand against the nearby wall, her head bowed.
Yellow moved the orb to one side, freeing a hand and resting it against Blue's shoulder. She needed her to focus right now.
"Blue, it's impossible. Maybe her capacity for distortion lingers within her base and the Pearl and Lapis Lazuli hide within her walls. Your Danburite and the child may have taken flight there, too, you know how mercurial the future can be. Or perhaps things are still in disorder, the disruption emanating from her very shards," she lifted the bubble to Blue's side, might she see it in her periphery.
"We can melt her shards, Blue, destroy her completely. You, me, we'll be free of her forever. It's… what Pink would have wanted for us. It's what she deserves." Yellow tried to sound as convincing as possible, hoping her comfort would snap Blue out of this. Right now, she needed the poised, calculating Blue Diamond – not this impetuous heap of emotion that she let herself become.
Blue raised her head, but did not turn to face her. "But… Yellow, when the transmission ended, my Heliodor fled with the rebels. I know not where they are, and the Sapphire's had not seen it coming. Why? This sort of sedition is uncharacteristic, if not downright impossible, for that entire vein of gemstone."
Yellow's comforting hand fell, and she sent the bubble safely away for the time being. This was news to her – she knew the Pearl and Lapis Lazuli were missing, the Peridot presumed dead, but to lose all of them? And then, the hybrid and Danburite have gone missing too? This was borderline imprudence; how could she have let things get so out of control? She should never have left them in Blue's control, too capricious with her sentimentality…
Placing her thumb and forefinger against one temple, Yellow closed her eyes and turned away, thinking.
The hybrid is the primary concern, the others will not leave him behind, so we stick the original plan… Capture him, let them surface, come to us. With White out of the way, the only thing left to do is erase them from our margins. Quick, simple, and it will all be over.
Part of Yellow was criticizing herself for not just letting the boy die during the execution, but Blue had been obstinate in her favored form of punishment, so she had agreed to keep him alive for a bit longer. Now he had slipped through her fingers yet again, out there, hiding from his fate.
After a stretch of silence, Blue finally turned to Yellow and had regained some of her composure. "Yellow – I do have one lead. My Sapphire's were certain that the Heliodor hides at… your Kindergarten," she wheeled around to face Blue at that, eyes flashing dangerously. "I do not know why she is there, but she since she took off with the rebels, they cannot be far behind. Those so fated also meet a favorable end; those my Sapphire's can see will die, but there are still many holes."
Clenching her teeth, Yellow steeled herself from the temptation to clear a path of carnage straight to her Kindergarten.
Rationalize, Yellow. Now is not the time for petty emotions.
"Blue, while that is well and good, should we not focus on the hybrid? They will come to him, as we originally planned."
Blue lowered her hood, eyes finally sparkling with that wicked tint that Yellow admired.
"If we find the Pursuant, we will find the rest of them, or we will find him. In either case, one will always lead to the other… the boy, he would do anything to protect them, Yellow. Anything."
Yellow moved a hand to her chin, a thoughtful pose. "Well, it sounds like you have something in mind…"
/
Stepping off the warp pad, Steven squinted through the fog of the Kindergarten for a second time – although now, he did not arrive alone. Dani had let him walk on his own once they were stopped, and now she was hovering nearby, posture as frigid as her expression. Flanked by Quartz soldiers, he and Dani opted not to speak freely like they had before.
Steven twisted his hands together, his memories of this place and White Diamond sending electric jolts of unsettling feelings straight through his heart. An intense shudder made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, sending chill all the way down to his toes. He couldn't help it as he remembered White Diamond's penetrating gaze, the way she looked at him and through him at the same time… and then the image shifted, her eyes turning surprised and scared, looking down as a blade protruded from her chest…
Ugh.
Steven was pretty sure they were not headed the same direction as when he had first come here, recalling the magnificent white palanquin that carried White Diamond and himself up through the mist. This time, he followed their guide down a series of sloping hills; the fog grew denser, the air colder, and the light dimmer at they went further down. The ceiling of the massive cave was no longer visible, too far away and obscured by the condensing haze, but Steven's eyes searched for it anyway – it was a much prettier sight than the world around him.
Everything had an eerie, lustrous glow to it as they went deeper, like the fog itself was alive – a disembodied sun, weak when separated, but growing stronger and brighter as the world around them became darker.
The air still had a musty, sulfurous odor, and it only became more pungent as they passed increasingly larger exit holes and warped hollows of minerals and dirt as they continued their descent. Steven bit his lip, mind full of a million questions, but so much as even speaking here felt wrong… he knew this place was the birth sight of gems, but right now, it felt more like a catacomb, and his nerves told him not to speak at risk of disturbing the sepulchers.
It took about ten minutes of walking for things to change, but change they did. The slope started to widen, eventually evening out to a long plane of emptiness. The dirt here was darker than the iridescent walls he remembered from above, almost black, and the mist was so thick it was hard to see more than a foot in front of him.
From what little light remained, he guessed they were in some sort of canyon, or at the bottom of a giant lake that had been drained; the nearest walls scaled high above their heads, into the abyss.
Their guide held up a hand to stop them before they continued their trek through the darkness.
"Be careful," White Pearl said. It looked like she was being dragged ahead into the shadowy miasma, her cape billowing mysteriously in the otherwise still air.
"There are particularly deep exit holes here in the ground. They... well, just know these holes are larger than your average Quartz. If you fall in, my guess is you will die."
Steven glanced behind him at Dani, but she and the soldiers were too far for him to see clearly through the mist. No one responded, so Pearl continued her march with haste, and Steven followed close behind so as not to lose her, focusing on the way her cape swished around her ankles, eyes watching for craters.
The air was even colder here. Exhaling, Steven watched his breath steam and dance with the fog, reminding him of a winter day back on Earth. He retreated to his memories then, back to Beach City, back to Earth, back to home. It made his heart ache, remembering that first bad snowstorm, the first time he had seen future vision, the first time he and Connie stayed up all night together…
Steven had let his mind wander too far – he stumbled and nearly fell forward. There was a pause as Pearl allowed him to collect himself, peering behind her shoulder, and then resumed her hurried pace through the cavernous gloom.
What are we doing here, anyways? First, Dani said she was supposed to take me to Yellow Diamond, and then we got stopped by White Pearl, and then Pearl needed to bring us here? And the way she reacted… I would have expected her to be sad, or mad, or even a just tiny bit distraught with what happened to White Diamond… but she was smiling.
Steven shivered, from the cold or the memory he wasn't sure.
"There has been a change of plans. Blue Diamond needs to see you, privately, so come quickly."
"What? Why?"
"I don't know – they have already killed my Diamond, child. Do you really think I am in a position to ask questions?"
No answers, no explanation, just go this way, now that way, do this, now that. Ugh.
Steven really hated being led aimlessly everywhere, but then again, he had expected to die at least two hours ago and that hadn't happened, so maybe he should be thanking his lucky stars…
"We're here."
Steven looked down and realized his toes had started to ache from the chill; he wasn't standing on dirt or stone anymore, but metal. It was the same, mysterious green alloy that hid the warp pad both times he came here. It seemed to pulse and glow like the little baton Pearl had let him borrow, to him to give him "restricted" warp access.
"…Um, what do you mean we're here? What's here? What is this place?"
White Pearl did not respond to Steven's question. Instead, her head was turned off away, her face thoughtful.
Dani had caught up by now, standing a few inches behind Steven while he looked dubiously around the blank space, at the metal beneath his feet, and back at her. Her presence was a welcome relief right now; she was familiar and kind, a lone constant in this inexplicable and repressive thing that had become his life.
A shifting at the edge of his vision caused him to jump, the fog thinning as a dark figure approached. Steven squinted, knowing it was too short to be a Diamond, but they were tall…
"Heliodor?"
It took only a few long strides for her to close the distance between them, towering over him once again. Steven gulped at the lump in his throat. What was happening? First Dani, White Pearl, now Heliodor… He never expected to see the three of them together, let alone to be here with them, below the surface of Homeworld trapped in a tense silence that felt like it was judging all of them.
Out of habit, Steven tried to cover the scars on his discolored arm, hating remembering the things he had been made to do as she studied him with orange eyes. For a moment, she let her gaze linger over his arm, studying the mingling of white and yellow beneath his pale skin, but she flicked her eyes away and returned her focus to the boy.
Squatting down so she was nearly at his level, they were both reminded of when they first met, when he first fell from the beams of the beach house.
"How far we've come, child, yet we're right back where we started." Her voice was as icy as the chill between his toes, and Steven backed up slightly into Dani's protective grasp.
He looked around, into the fog, at his feet, anywhere but her terrifying face. "W-what do you mean? Why am I here?"
/
"STEVEN!" Lapis pounded angrily against the barrier, trying to get him to realize they were just inches away, her arms aching each time her balled fist made contact with the hard surface. She was the only one of them that could comfortably reach the top of the hole, but the others (except Connie) had tried jumping and shooting projectiles, but the alloy just absorbed each of their blows with an echoing clang.
He looked down at them twice, but Lapis couldn't see his face, it was too dark – it didn't seem like he noticed them, though, because he made no move to communicate on the other side. His voice, his outline, his mannerisms… they were unmistakable. It was Steven, and he was right there.
After several fruitless attempts of breaking through the top, Amethyst shapeshifted into a drill and tried to make her way through the dirt in another direction while Lapis continued to press her ear against the metal surface, trying to hear what was happening above ground.
"He's talking to… Heliodor. They said something about Pearl, and Blue Diamond…"
Garnet and Pearl were staring up at her while she spoke, and Connie was playing with the abandoned robonoid nearby – something to busy her hands. Amethyst yelled through her hole, so Lapis missed whatever came next.
"UGH. I hate this, it's too dark. I hit metal again, like, ten or twenty feet in. I think we're in a box of this green stuff." Garnet, Pearl and Connie all looked at each other, their faces drawn in distress. Heliodor trapped them in this emerald limbo – with him but not, close, but not close enough – and now she was mocking them by holding Steven at arm's length, literally inches away… He couldn't hear them or see them, but they were so close…
Frustrated, Garnet removed her visor and pressed her thumb and forefinger into two of her eyes. "This doesn't make sense. What is the point of this? Why is Steven here?"
Connie surprised them when she was the one to answer, her voice hollow. "Isn't it obvious?"
Pearl and Garnet looked from her to each other and said nothing. Gently, Pearl urged her to continue. Lapis was trying her best to ignore them.
"Connie, what is obvious?"
She dragged her gaze away from the ill-fated robot at her feet, sputtering and whining uselessly in the dirt, and looked at the others. "Don't you remember what Blue Diamond said, before she brought out Holly Blue? Sorry – Pearl, you weren't there, but…" Her head dropped into her knees, eyes squeezed tight as the soft echo of Steven's voice reverberated around them.
"They want us to see it happen. They're going to murder him and keep us trapped down here while we watch, and listen, and there's nothing we can do to stop it." Her voice cracked at the end, and she turned her face away so they wouldn't see her breaking. How could they have made it so far just to fail, this close to him?
Lapis traced the outline of his small feet with her thin blue fingers, cast in black against the green glow. They were taunting her, daring her to try to break through the metal again.
Please, Steven, just look down. I'm right here…
It took every ounce of her self-control not to cry, to put her ear up to the surface again, to try to decipher the quiet voices.
Below, Garnet took a deep breath as she tried to stay her twitching hands. She could feel Ruby and Sapphire in disharmony, wanting to stay together but coming undone. The pressure of the darkness, the crushing air of defeat, the quiver in Connie's voice, the shadow of Steven just above… It was torture. This was worse than all of Blue Diamond's mockery by far, to tempt them with freedom, to be together with the others, only to be thrown into a hole that echoed with the life of Steven as he moved above the surface, a ghost just beyond the veil.
"It sounds like… Heliodor is leaving, with someone. Danburite, er, Dani is definitely there, talking to him. They're alone now, I think. Steven sounds… confused, maybe, or scared…"
Pearl was about to say something, opening her mouth while she watched Lapis struggle when a low rumbling started to loosen some of the dirt around them. At first, she thought they were about to be released, or worse, compressed, but after a moment the tiny earthquake faded. Amethyst had just returned to them then, popping through the dirt and shaking muck from her hair. Those of them at the bottom of the hole looked at her accusingly.
"What? I didn't do th —whoooooa." All of them staggered slightly when another slight shaking turned into a thunderous crash just above their heads, causing the ground to sway at the sudden force.
Amethyst had fallen over into Connie's lap. "Okay, that was not me. You all have – " but before she could finish, Lapis hissed down at them.
"Shh! Something's happening!"
/
The tremors were coming more regularly, and with enough force that Steven and Dani both fell over, losing their balance on top of the frozen green surface. They had been still for several minutes, trying to reassure each other that things would work out when the abrupt smashing first sent them sprawling.
It sounded like the crashing was coming from above, an echoing boom that made Steven bite his lip nervously. Heliodor said Blue Diamond would be coming, but why here? The crashing grew louder and closer, and soon, a royal palanquin vaulted down in front of them, shaking the ground from the force of impact it dropped from the caverns above.
His eyes went wide at the yellow monstrosity. He hadn't considered the possibility that Blue Diamond had too been murdered by Yellow Diamond, so he was frozen with uncertainty, examining the menacing cathedra before him, wondering what might emerge from within.
"Steven?" her voice sounding somewhere to his right, one hand lifting her up while the other fixed her visor as she looked around for him.
On the ground, the fog was marginally thinner so Steven was able to spot the hem of her alabaster dress, contrasting starkly against the green underneath her, so he shuffled towards her as the yellow spider retracted its many legs, coming to a full stop as it shuddered against the ground.
Yellow Diamond descended the stairs, appraising him with a look that could only be described as revulsion, but he hardly gave her any notice. Behind her was Blue Diamond, forgiving and wise, their contrasting presences so jarring it was hard to believe they were leaders of the same vein. It looked like there might have been a handful of smaller gems, Pearls and Quartz maybe, but they remained on the platform. Blue was examining them, gem and half-gem, bemused by their speechless expressions.
Yellow broke the silence once they had both reached the base of the valley, their massive footfalls echoing upwards and outwards through the Kindergarten.
"I see your Danburite has turned traitor, Blue. Shall I dispose of her?" She turned to look at her fellow Diamond, her blue face unreadable as she considered the possibilities.
Dragging himself to his feet, Steven stood in front of Dani with his arms outstretched.
"Leave her out of this! This doesn't have anything to do with her – she was just following orders!" Despite the circumstances, his voice was fierce – intense in a way that it hadn't been for days, if not weeks. This whole disaster had gone on long enough, and he knew Blue Diamond wouldn't support this sort of senseless killing.
Yellow Diamond's eyes narrowed at his capacity for disrespect, sizing up the hybrid child.
"You've grown bold, have you?" Her voice was the byword of intimidation, both her fists clenching at his affront. Steven's mouth started to go dry, but he did not back down.
Danburite tried to hiss for him to stop. "Don't... "
After an anxious, extended stillness, Blue's face fell into a frown. She was the absolute image of regret.
"No, Yellow, he is right. You do not need to kill her." Steven's arms relaxed and he smiled slightly despite himself; he knew if any of them could be reasoned with, it was Blue Diamond.
Yellow rolled her eyes and looked away, disapproving. "You're serious?"
Shaking, Dani started to rise and moved towards her Diamond, off the platform, her hands in a salute. "T-thank you, my Diamond. It is as the child says, the Pearl led us here, and we were…"
Blue Diamond lowered a hand while Dani started to explain, silently offering for Steven to step into her palm, at which he grinned and climbed up her blue fingers. Dani trailed off while she watched him, but shook her head and refocused when she realized her Diamond was gazing at her, face expectant.
"M-my apologies. As I was saying, the Pearl, she intervened while I brought him to you, our most respected Yellow Diamond, and I – "
But Danburite never got to finish her explanation, never got to see Steven's face turn from relieved to horrified, never got to tell him thank you, or even goodbye. Blue Diamond's other hand came down hard and smashed her form into the dirt. Her wrath was so sudden and potent that all that remained were white little shards, poking out of the ground. They looked like seeds for organic matter, planted in the dirt, but these seeds would never yield life again.
Blue Diamond mused to privately, disturbing both the quiet and her audience.
"I can take care of traitors myself."
/
Both hands over her mouth, Lapis squeezed her eyes shut as the shockwave rocked their green cage like an earthquake. Danburite…
"I… no, Steven, no! It's a trap, stop, stop it!" She pushed her hands helplessly against the green metal, trying to will her way through it.
Garnet was frustrated, looking up at Lapis, and shouted, "Lapis, what is it!? What's happening?"
"She… Danburite, she's been… shattered."
They were all deadly still below the surface, Lapis words echoing heavily around them.
There was a shouting above the surface now, so Lapis shook her head of the sorrow and listened hard.
"It's… Steven, he's…" Well, he was a lot of things. By the sound of it, he was crying, straining, yelling, struggling, suffering… and Blue Diamond was laughing. It made her feel sick.
"…he's realized what happened. Blue Diamond is… laughing at him. Now Yellow Diamond, too." They hardly needed the translation, though, the Diamond's voices much mightier than Steven's as the traces of their mockery bounced around the hole like a repulsive chorus.
Lapis winced suddenly, a loud clanging sounding just above her head.
"Steven!" Several of them gasped and whispered his name, through gasps, clenched tear, and stunned hands. He had rather jumped, or, more likely, been thrown down into the metal by one of the Diamonds. Given the volume of the impact, it must have been very painful.
His voice was closer to them now, though he was yelling loud enough that they all would have been able to hear if he hadn't been right on top of them.
"But why? I did everything you asked, I went through all of those trials, I-I… even hurt my friends. I don't understand. What more do you want?"
Yellow Diamond sounded amused, and her words came from further away, obviously enjoying the pain in his voice, the sound of the words dying in his throat.
"Don't you get it? …useless. What a waste of our time. Before I shatter you, where is…"
Amethyst whispered (though she recognized it wasn't necessary – there was no one to overhear them) when the rest of them paused, looking around at each other. "Where is what?"
Pearl shushed her, and they all listened hard.
/
Steven tried to get up, to face them, but the look on Blue Diamond's face made his throat seize up so violently he started to cough. She had the most evil, twisted grin, her eyes alight with fervor and curiosity, not a trace of her characteristic remorse visible on her lovely, crafted façade.
That's just it Steven, it's a façade. How stupid are you? You trusted her, you let your guard down, and now Dani…
He sucked in a hard breath as he tried to push himself up, realizing he couldn't stand if he wanted to. His left leg had broken his fall, and now it may be broken, too. When Blue whipped him into the stinging metal, he skidded backwards with the pressure favoring one side and it had twisted unnaturally from the momentum. So, Steven resorted to holding himself up on his front using his arms.
"Where are the others?" It was Blue Diamond, repeating Yellow's question, her voice sharp as it punctured the air, his ears, and his heart.
Still racking through his coughs, Steven propped himself up and looked at Yellow Diamond, still not ready to face her Blue companion just yet. "I… don't know? Who? Pearl brought me and… brought me here, and said to wait. She left after that."
Blue glowered and turned away, and Steven was washed with a tiny wave of relief now that his eyes didn't have to avoid looking at her face; he was too angry, too hurt to deal with that right now. He did stare daggers into her back though, wanting nothing more than to throw his shield right into the back of her head.
Yellow looked righteous as she examined the pitiful heap below. She turned her head ever so slightly in Blue's direction, not taking her eyes off of him. "I'm not sure I believe it."
She approached him, stepping onto the green surface and causing the ground to shake under her massive physique.
Yellow cocked her head to one side, observing the anger in the boy's face at her feet. It would be so easy to crush him right now. "So… you saw the Pearl, and she took you and the Danburite, and there was no one else?"
Steven readjusted his weight to better face her, but he had to clench his teeth at the movement. "Well, no, at first it was us," he nodded his head towards where Dani had been crushed, unable to say her name right now. "Pearl… and two Quartz soldiers. I don't know what kind. They looked a lot like the guards White Diamond had stationed outside my cell-thing. Actually," he peered around through the fog, squinting.
"I don't really remember them leaving, but I guess they're gone."
Yellow clicked one of her heels impatiently, and Blue continued to brood in silence.
"When we got here, I saw Heliodor, but she was only here for like a minute, then she left. That was it." His voice was flat, biting back insults and shouts. He hated them both so much right now.
"So there was no one else?" That was not the point Steven expected her to press – who else did they think would be here?
Half-shrugging, Steven replied. "Nope."
Blue Diamond whirled around, her face stern and her eyes alive with an energy so destructive it made him flinch. How had he ever trusted her? The betrayal tasted sour in his mouth.
"Where is the Lapis Lazuli? Where did you send them in the warp stream?"
Steven furrowed his brow in confusion, turning over the question, looking away from her. Why did they care about Lapis, she was with… Pearl? Oh. He remembered when he had last seen them both, the pained look on their faces.
Sighing, Steven addressed the confusion. "No, I was talking about White Pearl, like the one that used to belong to White Diamond before... She said you sent her," he forced himself to look at Blue Diamond.
"And that we were supposed to meet here. I have no idea where Lapis, or the Pearl you're thinking of, is." Steven half-wondered how she knew about the warp stream and sending them away, but he didn't bother to ask. Everything she had told him was a lie, so why would he expect the truth now?
Blue stiffened at his response, eyes narrowing as she turned to face Yellow.
While Blue may have put on a mask of distrust and anger, trying to match Yellow's reaction the best she could, this was disturbing news to her. She did not think he was lying, he's not clever enough for that. Why did Heliodor and White Pearl bring the boy here? Was this one more of White Diamond's tricks, from beyond the grave, trying to turn her and Yellow against each other? She had been instrumental in murdering Pink, and now she was going to try to turn her against Yellow, too? Her eyes narrowed into dangerously thing slits as she looked back down at Steven.
Yellow seemed to be reaching the same nefarious conclusion, so she continued her questioning.
"Where did they go? White Diamond's Pearl and the Heliodor?" Her voice was heavy with unspoken threats.
"I don't know."
That was unsatisfactory.
"Do not lie to me!" Yellow waved her hand in a sweeping motion and then clenched her fist tightly as it arched above her head, causing Steven's breath to catch in his throat as a familiar burning started to play up his arm. The diamond insignia flared like fire on his wrist, growing more intense as he squeezed his eyes shut, pulling himself to sitting to avoid putting extra weight on his arm. The adjustment was agonizing, but sitting upright allowed his lungs to breathe a bit more easily and gave him better leverage to steady the shakes that racked his small frame.
As much as he did not want to give them the satisfaction, Steven hissed in pain as the yellow lines spread further up and down his arm, the tips of his fingers glowing from the sensation, his blood burning like an inferno. Soon, he was rasping for air, unable to suppress the agony as hot tears ran from his cheeks. The pain was causing him to twitch, making the stabbing in his bent (possibly broken) leg all the more painful. He could feel the heat spreading through his chest, almost reaching his navel, and he remembered the blinding pain from the last time…
"Please stop! I don't know, I don't know, please…"
They let up, if only to ask again.
"Where did Heliodor go? Where are the others?"
Through labored breaths, Steven managed to wheeze out a few words. "I really… don't know…"
/
Any conceivable nightmare the Crystal Gems could have imagined was extinguished as they listened to Steven writhing under sudden yellow glow above their heads. All of them were cringing as if they were the ones being burned and it didn't take long for their agony to compound with the claustrophobia, throwing everything into chaos.
Lapis was so focused on the activity above that she didn't even realize her water wings had started to evaporate, noticing too late as she fell from the air. She landed next to the forgotten robonoid, buzzing erroneously in the dirt.
Connie had been shoved roughly back against a wall when Garnet came apart, Ruby flying into her as Sapphire landed coarsely in the dirt. Hands digging into her ratty hair, Amethyst looked like she had gone completely insane, yelling at Pearl and Sapphire on one side of the hole.
"What are you doing? Form Sardonyx or something, come on, we need to get out of here! We NEED to get OUT OF HERE!"
Ruby screamed at her in response. "DON'T YELL AT HER! We can't, we'd crush you, and Lapis, and Connie. Connie would definitely die, and you two might shatter under the pressure. There's not enough room!" She summoned a gauntlet and punched in time with the words, packing some of the dirt further away but unable to even budge their ambivalent earthbound hell.
Pearl leaned against one of the walls, sinking to her knees, the world spinning. If she had a stomach, she probably would have thrown up, but the sensation was lost to her. Her brain was torn between the here and now and screams very much like those, echoing in her memories across dozens of battlefields. Was this it? Driving them insane with grief until they ripped each other apart? Or were they just waiting until after Steven died to kill them, wanting them to have to listen as they severed each tether that bound him to this reality until he couldn't bear to exist anymore? Now that she thought about it, Pearl was pretty sure she was almost out of tethers herself.
Gripping her arms, her head shot up suddenly like someone had called her name. It was a feeling, something close, someone close… What was that?
The urgency in Pearl's voice was enough to quell the madness, if only for a moment. "Wait. Do you hear that?"
They all froze, looking around at each other, faces dark in the tinted abyss. There was something happening, above, but… what? There were a few shouts, and then there was a loud groaning and shaking around them.
/
"NO – get away from me!"
In spite of the pain it afflicted his shaking body, Steven dragged himself away, off of the green platform and back into the dirt. This very well may have been the worst moment of his life, but for Holly Blue Agate, advancing towards him like a predator upon prey, she was nothing but smiles as she got nearer, clearing the stairs of the palanquin and catching up with him easily.
"But why, Steven? Don't you miss feeling powerful? Can't you see how weak you are?"
She bent down and reached for his leg – thankfully, the uninjured one – and he yelped when her icy grip touched him. Crouching down, Holly Blue made her face innocent and whimsical, looking at his terrorized face.
He tried to kick his leg out from her hold, but her grip was firm. "Let go of me, I don't want to fusewith you, I'll never want to fuse with you!" Just looking at her made him want to throw up, to go back to the burning yellow pain, to be back in the trial room. Her grip tightened painfully, threatening to crush his bones a second time.
Before Holly Blue could continue, she turned her neck over her shoulder at the call of her name. "Oh, Holly Blue? Let me see if I can't persuade him." Blue Diamond moved away from her station at the side of the palanquin, walking past Yellow, over the green floor, and stopped when she stood only feet from the hybrid. Though her face was thoughtful, her eyes betrayed her real emotions – loathing.
"I told you I don't know, where the others… are…" Steven was having a difficult time breathing as panic lacerated his heart and lungs.
Then, something new happened. A warmth had started to spread through his left side, and he lifted his arm to examine the source of the feeling. His arm was shaking, watching pretty rivers of blue trace between yellow and white like a complex lace, interwoven with beauty and menace. It was breathtaking to behold, but that only made it worse.
Holly Blue looked bored as she watched Steven's eyes shift between her and Blue Diamond, her elegant face drawn in a doting smile as her gem glimmered in her chest. He blinked several times and shook his head lightly, struggling to stay focused. It felt like he was falling asleep, his mind turning mercifully calm, and then he felt really, really weak. Not in the physical sense like he might collapse, but worthless, pitiful, inferior. His fists clenched in shame as angry tears formed around his eyes and he blinked furiously to dispel them, hating the way they felt, reminding him of how stupid he was. He had been tricked, deceived, hurt, manipulated, starved and hated – and now hehated feeling all of those things.
A solitary blue hand came into focus at the end of his vision, hovering just a few feet from his face, offering to help him stand. Holly Blue Agate… he hated her, too, but not nearly as much as he hated being himself.
Wincing in pain as he leaned forward, he tried to lock fingers with her, to end this nightmare, to free him from being like this… But, it was interrupted when Blue Diamond fell backwards, causing the ground to shake and for Holly Blue to lose her footing, withdrawing her hand to steady herself.
As quickly as his mind had flooded with pessimism, Steven was back again, looking at his own arm hanging dumbly in the air.
What am I doing? He clenched his hand into a fist, snapping it back towards him in disgust.
A thunderous rumble made him flinch, and he realized Blue Diamond had started screaming as she regained her balance. She looked overwhelmed with vexation.
"I will destroy you, you abject, defective traitor!"
A blur of orange moved in his vision as Holly Blue was knocked backwards off her feet, away from him, and Steven started to crawl a little further away once she released his leg. The ground had started to shake and explode as yellow flashes illuminated the mist with a hazardous glow, a raging thunderstorm storm lacking the rain. The bolts started to tear the terrain apart.
Steven yelped as Yellow Diamond pointed a finger straight at him, and he raised his shield instinctively to protect himself. He was unscathed, the shot deflected and went down into the ground next to him, the sudden force breaking the dirt mound and flinging him backwards with the momentum.
Steven winced as he landed on his hurt leg, but the pain was soon eclipsed when a hunk of rock came flying into in. His whole body tensed, so painful that his brain rejected all feeling for a split second. It was as if time stopped for just a millisecond, long enough for the foundation of his mind to unhinge ever so slightly. Then, in a single beat of his heart, Steven gasped and crumpled weakly into the shuddering ground.
Shaking horribly and soaked in sweat, Steven raised a hand and searched mindlessly over his shirt for the gemstone on his stomach. When he found it, he inhaled a sharp breath of freezing air.
A crack ran across the delicate Rose Quartz, the last gemstone of its kind in all of existence. The fissure was shallow, but it extended from one side and stopped a little more than halfway across the stone face.
The Diamonds were saying something, and it sounded like them might be angry, but his head was swimming from the sensation and it felt like his body was rejecting any of the air that made its way into his lungs.
Each inhale came a little weaker and each beat of his heart a little slower.
Steven was dying.