Nobody dared move an inch as Rose beamed herself inside the ship, the air itself feeling heated from the energy she was putting off. The enraged mother than stalked up towards Greg and asked, in the angriest growl possible, "What do you think you're doing?"
The father, while sweating, held firm. "I am retrieving my son that you decided to kidnap in the middle of the night. And I won't let you take him again."
The two lovers glared into each other's eyes with as much animosity as possible, looking ready to snap at a moment's notice. Steven and the Maheswarans all backed away, prepared to evacuate the ship if necessary.
"I'm trying to help him," Rose said through bared teeth, "I don't know what those diamonds have done to him but-"
"You mean the things you keep imagining because you've lost your mind?"
"I'm doing what's best for him!"
"You think that's what Steven thinks?! Getting abducted by his own mom is for the best?!"
The others then watched as, rather than come to blows, the two just kept lobbing words at each other. Out of context, it would sound like two normal parents bickering over how to best raise their child save for the occasional mention of mass mind-control and the fact that one of them was still wearing high-tech battle armor out of a sci-fi novel.
Steven looked to Connie and her mother, both of them looking just as lost. He thus decided to try and intervene. "Um, guys?"
"Not now!" Both of them snapped before going right back to bickering, clearly aggravated with each other but nowhere near as furious as before.
"Guess this must be their first real argument," Priyanka commented, "At least it means she's distracted."
"Did you and Dad have something like this?" Connie asked off-handedly.
"Yes but it feels like it was ages ago. All I remember is that it involved sushi."
Steven, meanwhile, was looking at the scout ship's console. His father was standing right in front of the communicator. If he tried reaching it now, it would mean getting in Rose's line of sight and her getting angry and glowing like a supernova was the last thing any of them needed now. He did manage to catch Greg's eye and subtly jerked his head towards the back of the ship.
"Oh, suuure… Blame me for all of this!" Greg griped, walking away from the bridge and talking behind him, "It's not like I've been the one actually raising him for fourteen years!"
"Hey, get back here!" Rose yelled back, walking after him, "And I'd have been able to raise him if the rebellion had worked out if not for those…!"
"Okay, they're gone," Steven sighed, hitting the comms button and hoping for the best.
"Steven, oh thank goodness!" Pearl gasped from the other side, "What's going on?! Peridot says the ship's stranded with no shields!"
"Rose showed up and she was really angry. Thankfully, Dad's distracting her but we don't have much time. We need to get out of here!"
"At your current location, it'd be impossible for the Beacon to reach you even at warp speed," Peridot reported, "If only we could send you reinforcements…"
"Wait, can't you just teleport yourself here through the channel?"
The line was silent for a few moments before the slap of a palm hitting a face broke the tension. "Oh, duh…"
"Peri, for someone so smart, that was really dumb."
"Amethyst, we can laugh about this later!" Garnet griped, "Peridot, get over there and get them all off the ship!"
The technopath wasted no more time, appearing out of the console from a stream of green pixels.
It was also that exact moment that Rose seemed to give up on her argument and storm back onto the bridge. Greg, following behind her, clamped his mouth shut and tried not to panic as he realized he messed up badly.
"Peridot?" Rose asked, equal parts stunned and sulking, "What are you doing here? More importantly, how did you get here?"
"Uhhhh… I was always here?"
"Subtle, like an anvil to the face," Dr. Maheswaran sighed, the other mother rolling her eyes at that too. Rose then shot a finger beam right at the console, frying the entire system in one go and making the entire room deathly silent aside from the sparking hardware.
"I'm guessing you were hoping to spirit my son away back to where the diamonds are. You've always thought yourself clever, haven't you?"
"I-I-I mean, I talk a pretty big game but you've seen my track record!" Peridot backpedaled, shaking like a leaf, "I've had, what, three good ideas since I've been on this planet!"
"Peri, stop," Steven cut in, "I won't let her hurt you. Besides, you saved the whole world from the Cluster, saved us from that first space station and you just tried to rescue me. You're awesome."
The smaller gem seemed restored from the praise while the others all stared down Rose. The ominous pink glow from before came back as no one dared to move a muscle.
"Steven, I'm doing all of this to protect you. If you'd just listen to me-"
"Okay, you know what?" Peridot cut in, heedless of Rose's floored expression, "I don't know why I'm so scared of you. Yellow Diamond was my actual boss when I talked some sense into her so I think you deserve the same treatment."
"Um, Peri?" Connie tried, "Maybe this isn't a good-"
"You have become the epitome of delusional. You continue to claim you're better than the diamonds and yet you employ many of their tactics which, trust me, I'm familiar with. Colonizing planets, using displays of force to get your way, and generally being so hopped on power that you consider yourself invincible. The only real difference is the veneer of hypocrisy you hide behind while the diamonds were straightforward in their intentions. Huh, I guess this makes you worse than them!"
Rose's face went from offended to murderous, making everyone else break into a cold sweat while Peridot continued. "I mean, it's funny how you claim to listen to your son and have the world's best interests when you've continually ignored Steven's wishes and have all of Earth worried about the blockade you've set up. You even went and plastered your propaganda all over humanity's media where you're the righteous hero and the diamonds are the dastardly villains when you've struck first in every encounter and willingly ignore their proclamations of change. So tell me, what part of any of this makes you heroic?"
Everyone shut their eyes, expecting the self-assured techie to be vaporized any second. Steven dared to look to see that Rose was actually mulling over what Peri said. Thankful for a miracle, he then moved next to Peridot and whispered in her ear. "Do you trust me?"
"Did I not just risk certain death for you?" she said back, "Yes, now do something because I'm officially out of ideas."
Steven then grabbed the gem's hand, a sudden flash of light snapping up everyone's attention as their bodies disappeared into light. Nobody dared to move as they fused until the glow cleared to reveal a very odd figure.
Standing only slightly taller than Steven, their hair was a half-deflated afro colored olive green that came to a slight point above their forehead. This only drew more attention to the second set of eyes, colored a darker green then their hair, sitting above the brown ones. Adding that to their rounded cheeks, clefted chin and pale seafoam-green skin gave this new fusion a very unusual demeanor.
And all of that was only exaggerated from the neck down. Their four arms crisscrossed with two thicker limbs resembling Steven's and two thinner limbs from Peridot. Their two legs were the same with a spindlier limb on the left versus a thicker one on the right all. All six of which were attached to a torso that was thicker around the middle than the shoulders or waist but none of that was enough to take away from their outfit.
Pink and green were not colors known for pairing together and this was a key example of it. Electric pink cuffs on the arms and legs capped off what looked like a hybrid between footie pajamas and a suit that went from the neck to the ankles. The fabric seemed to be a mismatch of every pattern going from lime green cheetah print to bubblegum pink plaid in patches like the whole nauseating concoction was stitched together. All of it screamed tacky and a show of the wearer's insanity. Despite all of this, the newcome stood on their randomized legs with an unmistakable pride as they scanned the room.
"Hm, quite the conundrum we have here," the fusion spoke simply, scratching their chin with their left hands while the right two fidgeted, "A fried communications network, no shields, no thrusters, and stuck in tight corridors with a gem capable of overpowering a supernova in energy output…"
A simple, knowing smile then came to their face. "And here I thought I was in over my head! Good to know my debut isn't too hectic."
"Um, excuse me?" Rose cut in, looking as confused as physically possible, "I don't think you can salvage the electronics…"
The oddball fusion laughed, sounding like they just heard a hilarious joke, before strolling over to the wrecked console, "Now, now, I know I was literally just conceived a few moments ago but there's no reason to doubt me yet! I'm Chrysoprase, a mixture of all of Steven's power, Peridot's intellect, and a sincere desire to make you, dear Rose, look like an absolute idiot! I'd appreciate it if you'd comply because I frankly can't stand you already so let's not burn already incinerated bridges, hm?"
Everyone was speechless as Chrysoprase began running their hands all along the ruined bridge with all eyes appraising the warped metal like fine artwork. The hummed and hawed to themselves with no mind to their audience until they ripped the entire hunk of junk our of the floor.
"Well, this is officially inoperable! Guess that means I'll have to improvise a way out of here!" A second later, the fusion beamed out of the ship in a stream of pixels. Rose then quickly followed the fusion outside where they now floated inside a bright teal bubble that matched the gemstones on their forehead and navel.
"What exactly do you plan on doing?"
"Oh, I'll just be guiding the ship back to Earth manually," Chrysoprase said, before shrinking the full body bubble to only cover their head. Then they lifted all four arms over their head, causing the shuttle to move upwards until Chrysoprase was in just the right position to throw the entire ship downwards with a single push.
"Are you insane?!" Rose balked as she watched her lover and his allies descended towards Earth only for the fusion to laugh at her.
"You are the last gem who gets to ask that! Of course, they'll be fine, I rerouted all power to the shields to reactivate them since they won't need weapons or engines the way they're going. And besides, I needed some more space to work."
Rose was so lost that she didn't try to attack or stop the fusion as they literally swam through space up to another ship and suddenly disappeared into the hull. The rebel then watched as the spacecraft began flying past her as gems were suddenly thrown out of the airlock, tumbling into the void and forcing the mother to catch them as her own ship started firing on the rest of the fleet.
"Oh no you don't!" Rose hurriedly placed all of her troops in a bubble before rushing after the shanghaied ship. She gasped as the others tried to fight back but Chrysoprase's ship moved so unnaturally, rolling and swerving like it was possessed, that none of them could get a shot in before they were defeated. Her fleet was soon down by half until the rightmost flier was blown apart and more gems were either poofed or left floating in the vacuum begging for help.
Chrysoprase then emerged from the stolen craft with an air of satisfaction about them. "Okay then, now the artiste has adequate materials!"
"Will you stop it with the posturing?!" Rose demanded, "And you've already hurt hundreds of my gems! What more could you possibly do?"
"Ah, ah, patience! We still have much to do yet so just sit back and watch me create amazingness!" Chrysoprase then raised all four hands and, like a maestro in front of an orchestra, began waving her arms in a carefully chaotic manner as bits and pieces of metal started flying through space. Unlike Ametrine who smashed the pieces of her work into place, this fusion simply cut down ill-fitting scraps when needed and then slotted them into position whenever possible. Rose had to admit the artistry was impressive but knew they couldn't be allowed to finish.
The frenzied leader bolted forward, sending twin streams of energy out of her legs to propel her forward like a rocket only for the still-growing mass of metal to suddenly lurch forward and knock her upside the chin.
"Oi, it isn't finished yet!" Chrysoprase griped, their arms never stopping even as they spoke. Once she could see straight again, Rose realized that the fusion was constructing a massive sword. A two-foot-long hilt, a cross-guard as wide as a car and the blade itself being large and long enough that it looked suited to cutting up houses.
"Aaaaand… Done!" they chimed as the last few pieces slotted in the end. Although the massive weapon was only held together by the eccentric gem's powers, Rose had no doubt the damage it could cause.
"Impressive for a first attempt, hm?" Chrysoprase fished, "But hold your applause! The real ingenuity is about to come!"
The fusion laid their hands on the gigantic glaive and merged into it, just like with the computer from the shuttle. Rose had the natural reaction of dropping her jaw as much as possible as the technopathic blade began moving towards her.
"H-How?!"
The fusion, still wearing a bubble helmet, then popped out of the blade's tip with a flourish of their arms. "Metal powers, naturally!"
"I guessed that, but how are you inside it?!"
"Oh, well all of the circuitry from the original ships is still present but with more brute force I can essentially force them to reactivate so that I can marge with it like any other electronic. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment to keep!"
Chrysoprase disappeared back into their creation. The sword then jetted forward, blowing past Rose and slicing through the other half of her fleet. The phrase "like a hot knife through butter" came to her mind before the mother yelled in anger before charging forward. She fired a blast from her hands at the blade only for a massive, bright green shield bearing her own insignia to appear and deflect the attack.
And that one failed attack was all she could try before the last ship was cleaved in two, a few of her gems floating helplessly in the vacuum. She quickly flew over to put them in bubbles before turned to face Chrysoprase just as they emerged from their colossal weapon.
"Well, glad to see this was a success!" They then smiled, completely unconcerned with the tranquil fury on Rose's face.
"You… Just endangered hundreds of my followers. Any one of them could have been shattered by that attack!"
"And yet they weren't, were they? As if I do not possess knowledge of the typical manning procedure of these warcrafts and thus would already have the optimal route planned to minimalize casualties?"
Rose was struck silent by that. Her unease only grew when, using a random piece of flotsam under their feet, Chrysoprase floated over to her standing as straight as a ramrod with a sudden glower.
"And do you know what else I learned? The gems who 'follow' you? They have no memories of doing so. You're controlling them."
"What?! That's impossible! I-!"
"Steven saw it for himself. Greg, Connie, her mother, they're all witnesses to how you've enslaved them to your will. The many who were loyal to you were disgusted at being reduced to puppets," they droned, growing closer and closer until Rose's face was smushed up against the bubble helmeting the fusion's head. She wasn't sure of what to be worried about more: how Chrysoprase was talking legibly through the barrier or that they seemed ready to snap at a moment's notice.
"Do you see what you've done?" they demanded, "You're the master and they're the servants with no other way out. At least the diamonds gave them the freedom to think, to dissent! That's exactly where you and the others all came from!"
"I… I…"
Their upper-right arm, one of the thin ones, suddenly clutched Rose's neck and cut her reply off. "Don't try to justify this! Is this what you wanted all along?! To be the absolute master of all gem-kind and were just jealous the diamonds beat you to the punch?! Pearl, Garnet, all of them followed you because they chose to! What choice are you giving the billions under your thumb?!"
Rose let out a banshee-worthy scream as her entire body ignited in an explosion of power, sending Chrysoprase rocketing further away from Earth. It was only thanks to summoning a bubble a split-second before that saved them from disintegration. They had no choice to keep it up as Rose roared towards them at Mach speed and trying pummel them into oblivion. The woman was all but foaming at the mouth as her fists slammed into the fusion's defenses, growls erupting from her throat with every attack like a wild animal.
"Goodness, she's gone feral," they thought semi-panicked, "And I sincerely doubt that I can outthink a punch that could shatter titanium…" That made the lightbulb go off in their head, just in time for Rose to back off.
"Don't you ever compare me to them!" she shouted, "I am nothing like them! I am going to fix every last world they've broken and keep the galaxy safe from their madness!"
She went on and on some more, effectively proving the fused techie's point, but they could soak in being right again later. With Rose busy monologuing, they had the time to concentrate and gather as much of the metal debris as possible. It would take some time to get here yet Chrysoprase had a hunch they had time to spare.
Rose just kept going on and on and on about "diamonds evil" this and "I'll save everyone" that and how she just wants the best for everyone… The fusion closed their eyes and focused on the shards of metal still drifting in every direction and willed them to move closer. As the tirade just kept coming, they thanked their luck as Rose was so preoccupied that she completely missed the multicolored flecks moving into a loose sphere a few feet away from her.
Just as the addled gem was winding down, Chrysoprase clapped both sets of hands. And in the span of a few seconds, Rose Quartz found her entire body from the neck down encased in a metal prison.
"You do realize I'll break out of this, right?" Rose asked, not even the least bit worried.
"Perhaps, but have you been keeping track of the distance between the Mega Diamond and us?"
Rose didn't bother to answer that, simply releasing a quick burst of energy to force the armor off of her. She was about to approach Chrysoprase only for the diamond's ship and the Crystal Beacon to emerge out of warp-space a few hundred feet away. Both ships immediately opened fire with the mecha firing twin energy blasts out of its eyes while her ex-comrades fired off lasers that forced her to put up a massive wall of her own to stop the onslaught.
"And now, I must make a hasty reprieve," Chrysoprase said, swimming over to the ships, "But worry not, Rose Quartz! Take pride in that it took my incredible charisma and even more legendary intellect to defeat you! When your psychosis is resolved, I'd love to see you again!"
The ships upped their bombardment as Chrysoprase grew closer, giving them ample time to phase inside the Beacon and immediately defuse back into Steven and Peridot. The former took a massive gulp of air.
"Oh, that was close!" he gasped, "My lungs are on fire!"
"Heh, sorry," Peridot said, "Guess I forgot the whole partially human aspect but we did it! We stalled her! Now get us the heck out of here!"
Topaz and the rest of the Off-Colors wasted no time doing just that, aiming the saucer back towards Earth with the Mega Diamond only just behind them. Only minutes later and the whole of the Crystal Gems was back in front of the temple. The now wrecked shuttle that housed the other earthly members of the temple was farther down the beach. As soon as the other crafts arrived, Connie and the parents rushed across the sands to welcome everyone back.
As pleasant as the reunion was, Steven grabbed everyone's attention to alert them all to the news of Rose's followers being under her control. The news rattled the others, none more so than the original Crystal Gems, until Pink Diamond realized something.
"Wait a minute, remember when Rose got all confused and lost her focus? Do you think that's when you all were poofing her gems?"
Pearl's eyes lit up in an instant. "It could be! That means she does have a weakness! That could diminish her powers!"
"More important than that, it could potentially allow her to think clearly again," White pointed out, "And being able to talk her down seems like the better option. Especially since she has the vast majority, if not all, of gemkind under her at this point."
"We don't need to take down every gem in that case," Zoisite mentioned, "It would have to be enough that could disorient her and eventually restore her logic. But even if we were to take down one percent of her empire…"
"It would mean tens of millions of gems to defeat," White Diamond admitted, "And that's no small feat at our size. We'd need a proper plan to take care of this."
"Yes, I'd imagine you would."
Everyone then felt their hearts drop, even the gems who had no internal organs, as Rose Quartz herself casually stood behind them with a look of mild interest on her face.
"Um, R-Rose?" Amethyst stuttered.
"Yes?"
"What are, um, you know…"
"What, did you think that just because you destroyed one small platoon of my followers that I would hightail it back to another planet?"
Kunzite scratched her neck with a noticeable tremor in her voice. "Well, um, it just seemed like that would give you the message… That you'd, well… Take a break?"
"A break?"
"Rose… This has gone way too far," Garnet said plainly, taking off her visor to look her old leader in the eye, "We were supposed to stand for peace. We fought for so long, and so hard, to protect other gems and the people here. But that's not what you're doing anymore."
The pinkette was about to interrupt only for Pink Diamond herself to step in. "And what about changing the Great Diamond Authority and starting a movement for gem liberation? We were doing that! We had our own territories, we had willing followers, and we shoved it in the other diamonds' faces! So… Isn't your job done now?"
Rose, for a good long while, stared back at the assembly in front of her. Yellow, Blue and White Diamond knelt down to meet her gaze, holding steady as they made eye contact and made no movement towards her family whatsoever. Many of the Crystal Gems and Pink were clearly pleading, begging her to finally turn over a new leaf and put this all behind her.
And then she looked down at her son. The one just disowned her less than hour ago. The young man she was so proud of for becoming a righteous, upstanding young man that she always dreamed he'd be.
A single tear fell from her eye before she turned around and floated up and out of their sight without a word.
"She's coming back, isn't she?" Connie asked immediately.
"Probably," sighed Lapis, "I doubt she took all that at face value."
Everyone who could fit inside the temple headed there while the rest headed towards the Mega Diamond. Pink, after a moment, actually headed in with the other monarch gems much to their happiness. With that little bit to fall back on, everyone inevitably waited for whatever the free leader turned dictator was planning.
The next several days were an unsteady peace as the group tried to go about their business. With no real idea on their enemy's next step, all they could do was try and distract themselves. And then Agent Van had to call Steven again, sounding extremely nervous about the new fleet incoming.
Unlike last time, the government man didn't bother to visit in person. All he did was send a single picture and soon the entire temple was trying to prepare. That one image showed an armada larger than even the one Yellow Diamond had launched a planetary invasion with in order to resurrect the Cluster.
Rose Quartz was literally throwing everything she had at them.
And at long last, almost four years after the idea first cropped up, I am proud to present Chrysoprase as voiced by Madeleine Morris! So, that's all of Steven's canon fusions and my OCs! A shame Rose looks to be planning an invasion...
Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave a review or any questions or comments.