Ronnie Anne felt her balance slipping as Lion took off into a full gallop. Instinctively, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Steven's waist - which served to alert him to her presence.
"Wha... Ronnie Anne?! What are you-"
Steven was interrupted by a sharp, belch-like roar as Lion conjured up a portal, just like the one that had taken them to the armory. He proceeded to sprint into it, and for a moment the two of them were enveloped by a white, blinding light. When the light died down, they found themselves back on the beach leading up to the Temple. Lion came to a gradual stop and allowed the two children to dismount; the next thing she knew, she was face-to-face with a flabbergasted Steven.
"What are you doing here?!" he cried. "You're supposed to be evacuating with your family!"
"Yeah, well, so are you!" she retorted.
"But... but they need me! I'm a Crystal Gem!"
"I'M A CRYSTAL GEM, TOO!"
Steven flinched, taken aback by her sudden outburst. He looked her in the eye and could see her hard glare cutting through the twilight darkness, her sweat-moistened, disheveled hair fluttering in the wind.
"Look, I know I don't have magic powers like you and the Gems do. I know I got really hurt during our fight with Lapis. But if you think that I'm going to just sit on the sidelines twiddling my thumbs and waiting to see if you made it out okay, you're nuts!"
Her voice slipped into a desperate, pleading tone. "I want to help! And I can help! Garnet trained me in hand-to-hand for weeks, and... I mean, I even flipped her over my shoulder once! Doesn't that count for something?!"
Before she could continue, she felt the weight of Steven's pudgy hand coming down upon her shoulder. The boy looked her right in the eye, his expression carrying an uncharacteristic level of sternness. "I know being a part of the team meant a lot to you," he said. "Believe me, we loved having you around. Garnet said you were one of her best students. And the last thing we want is for you to feel useless or left out."
His stare hardened. "But you have to understand something. This is going to be the most dangerous thing either of us have done. Lapis was just upset and misunderstood. These guys actually want to hurt us. I'll do my best to keep you out of danger, but I-"
And just like that, a switch flipped inside of her mind. That stubbornness, that pride that drove her to disobey her mother and climb onto Lion's back, was reignited. In that moment, she was no longer asking Steven to let her join the fray; she was telling him. She cut him off by snatching his free hand and squeezing it, employing a grip that any human boy would have found restrictive, if not outright painful.
"And I'll do my best to keep you out of danger," she said, donning a confident smirk. "How about that?"
Steven let a nervous, shaky laugh escape his lips, which sent a ripple down to his belly. "You're pretty crazy, Ronnie Anne," he said. "All right. But you have to promise me you'll stick it through. No backing out. Deal?"
"Deal."
She gave his hand one last squeeze, before the two of them turned about and took off down the beach.
By the time Ronnie Anne and Steven arrived, the hand had landed. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl were gathered at the foot (or rather, fingertip) of the hand-shaped ship, which was hovering about twenty feet above the ground. The spacecraft, which cast a shadow over the entire shoreline, was even larger than Ronnie Anne had anticipated - more than large enough to squish all of the Crystal Gems with a single finger.
With a thundering boom that nearly made them stumble, the hand dropped its pointer finger to the ground, causing an explosion of sand at the point of impact. They instinctively flinched and shut their eyes as their faces were buffeted by clouds of sand; once they opened them, they were relieved to see that none of the Gems were standing close enough to get flattened. Upon closer inspection, they noticed two unfamiliar-looking figures standing atop the fingertip - a green, spindly woman with an odd, triangle-shaped headpiece, alongside a tall, broad-shouldered, orange-skinned woman with a waterfall of hair long enough to reach her calves.
"Is that Peridot?" Ronnie Anne whispered.
"The green one is," Steven whispered back. "I've never seen the other one before."
But there was a third figure hidden just out of sight, as Ronnie Anne was just about to find out. The brawny one looked back over her shoulder and yanked a third person - this one with blue skin - out from behind her by the wrist. Ronnie Anne peered closer, and noticed that the third person had a long, flowing dress, a rather familiar-looking haircut, and...
Lapis? Her stomach churned. What was she doing back here?
"I thought you talked her down!" she whispered sharply.
"I did! What is she doing back here?!"
The three aliens lowered themselves to the ground, right in front of the Crystal Gems. By that point, Ronnie Anne was close enough to make out what they were saying; the Crystal Gems, meanwhile, were too preoccupied to notice that she and Steven were behind them.
"And neither of you saw Rose Quartz?" the orange one asked, her voice a rough contralto. "What a shame. I'd hoped to meet her. I was looking forward to beating her into the ground!"
Ronnie Anne cringed, and her eyes darted nervously over to Steven. She hovered her hand over his back, ready to rein him in if the invader's remark made him lash out - not that she would fault him in the slightest if he did.
"But this is all that's left of her army? Some lost, defective Pearl, a puny, undercooked runt, and this shameless display?"
It was at this point that Ronnie Anne was struck with a bone-chilling realization; if she could see the new arrivals, then they could probably see her. Her courage faltered, and her next instinct was to back off before any of them-
"And what are those?"
Too late. The next thing she knew, the orange gem's eyes were locked onto her, and those of the other invaders soon followed. A moment later, the Crystal Gems all looked over their shoulders, their jaws falling slack at the sight of the new arrivals.
"The chubby one calls itself 'the Steven', Jasper," Peridot said in a nasally voice. "As for the other specimen, your guess is as good as mine."
"Steven?! Ronnie Anne?! What on earth are you two doing here?!" cried Pearl.
She couldn't respond. Both her brain and her body were petrified, stuck in a frozen, unresponsive state. The only thing she could do was silently plead that this was all a dream, and that she wouldn't actually do something so reckless and stupid.
"They're just humans!" Lapis cried. "They're not a threat! You don't have to hurt them!"
"I know what a human is," snapped Jasper. "You don't need me for this. Just blast them with the ship."
"Fine," Peridot said, as if she had just been asked to wash the dishes. A holographic touch screen phased into existence in front of her eyes, and she deftly ran her fingers across it. The next moment, the shore began to tremble as the giant hand lifted itself up from the ground. its mere motion causing a deafening roar. The Crystal Gems could do little but gawk at the monolithic vessel while it lifted itself higher and higher, only stopping once it had positioned itself about a hundred feet from the surface. Once it did, it began to change position. Ronnie Anne cringed from the din of shifting metal and clanking machinery, which even at that distance was clamorous enough to reach her ears. She felt a glimmar of relief once the movement stopped, but even that was extinguished as soon as she saw the new shape the ship had taken. The hand had morphed itself into the classic "finger gun" pose, with its pointer finger aimed directly at the shore.
Her mind fought desperately against her frozen joints, as she saw a sphere of neon light growing from the pointer finger's tip. The sphere pulsed bigger and bigger, basking the shore in a menacing neon-green glow.
"Steven! Ronnie Anne! Get out of here now!" Garnet barked at the two of them.
"NO!" Steven hollered back.
Ronnie Anne balked at this. In all the time she had known him, she had never heard him talk back to the Gems - especially not Garnet, who seemed to be the boss of that household. This is the same kid who apologized to me after I pushed him down and stole his donut, she thought, goosebumps sprouting up across her skin. Where is this coming from?
"I won't let you risk your life!" yelled Garnet.
"But this is my home, and you're all my family!" he cried.
It was then that Ronnie Anne's shaky, trembling hands compressed themselves into rigid, iron-clad fists of defiance.
And if he can be this brave... then what am I doing just standing here?!
Losing all inhibitions, she took off in a sprint towards Peridot. Her short but powerful legs propelled her across the beach toward her target, who looked up from her virtual control panel just a second too late.
"What the-?!"
Just as she was about to input the command to fire the laser, she was headbutted in the chest and tackled to the ground. Ronnie Anne proceeded to ram her fists into the intruder's face, over and over again.
"Get off me, you clod!" Peridot cried.
"THEN GET OFF MY PLANET!" Ronnie Anne hollered as she continued to pummel her. This went on until she felt a large, meaty hand gripping the hood of her sweatshirt and hoisting her up into the air. She flailed about as she felt her arms and legs leaving the ground, like a fish being caught on a hook. The unpleasant sensation was soon accompanied by an even worse one - namely, the sound of Jasper's rough contralto coming from directly behind her.
"You know, we were going to kill you painlessly," said Jasper. "The laser would have turned you into dust. You wouldn't have felt a thing."
She then whipped the smaller girl onto the beach face-first, hard enough that she bounced an inch into the air. "But if you'd rather I turned you into a squishy organic punching bag, be my guest."
Ronnie Anne pushed herself up from the ground, coughing up fistfuls of sand and rubbing stray grains out of her eyes. With a grunt of effort, she planted a foot on the ground, lifted herself back onto her feet, and craned her neck up at the barrel-chested, beefy-armed gem towering over her. Jasper flashed a malicious grin before slamming her fist into her palm. The smaller girl, undeterred, responded by taking a step back and raising her fists in front of her face.
"Ha! Pathetic."
Without giving her any time to brace herself, the gem invader drew back her arm and sent her meaty fist rocketing towards Ronnie Anne's head. In that moment - that very millisecond when she felt the buffet of air displaced by Jasper's fist - something clicked in her mind. Flexibility. Balance. Roll with the punches. Bend in the wind. Her body, almost of its own accord, twisted out of the way of the punch.
Now... strong!
She then grabbed the arm with both hands and pulled forward as hard as she could, while her hips pressed backward into Jasper's torso. With a primal roar, she hoisted the larger, heavier woman over her shoulder and sent her crashing down onto the ground below. BOOM.
For what seemed like a full minute, she stared down at the prone body of the large, imposing invader, panting from the effort. Her heart pounded, pounded with pride, adrenaline and vigor, while her arm muscles bulged large enough to tent her sweatshirt sleeves. Jasper was flat on her back because of her. She did that, all on her own.
Unfortunately, her maneuver wasn't going to keep Jasper down for long. With a guttural growl, she picked herself back up and swerved around, her face now clenched into a furious glower.
"Pretty neat trick there, human," she said. "Now you're really going to get it."
An opaque white light appeared above her crown, before swelling large enough to envelop her head. The light then disappeared to reveal that she was now wearing a helmet - one with a large, diamond-shaped protrusion, not unlike the head of a hammer. Ronnie Anne's mind raced furiously, trying to recall what Garnet taught her about headbutts, if anything. Do I block it? Dodge it? What?!
With a tooth-clenched snarl, Jasper reared her helmeted head back, thrust it forward, and...
CLANG. A deafening clatter rang out, loud enough to knock the young girl backwards. With her bones trembling and her ears ringing, her startled, disoriented eyes darted every which way, as she tried to piece together what had just happened. It wasn't long, however, before everything clicked into place; there, right in front of her, was Steven, holding aloft the same rosy pink shield he had used against Lapis. Standing before him was Jasper, who was now staggering backwards while staring at his shield, flabbergasted.
"The shield of Rose Quartz..." she uttered.
"Now do you believe I needed an escort?!" cried Peridot.
But the shield, much to Ronnie Anne's dread, vanished into thin air a moment later, and her protector fell forward onto the ground, exhausted. In a panic, she ran over to his side, grabbed ahold of his chubby arm and tried to hoist him back up.
"Steven! Are you okay?!"
The boy let out a weary groan before hoisting himself back onto his feet. Meanwhile, their attacker momentarily took her eyes off them and turned her furious glare towards Lapis.
"You know about this!"
"I-it wasn't relevant to the mission!" Lapis stammered.
"Forget about the mission." The burly gem slowly turned her head back towards the two weary children in front of her. "Yellow Diamond needs to see this... thing."
Ronnie Anne, her ire incited, lunged towards Jasper and shoved Steven behind her. "He's not a thing, you bozo! His name is Steven!"
"You can't manipulate me, Rose Quartz!" snapped Jasper, pointing an accusatory finger at the boy. "I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but if you-"
"LEAVE THEM ALONE!"
The three of them were interrupted by the sight of Garnet charging into the fray, her gauntlets drawn.
"Perfect," Jasper said with a sneer, as she thrust her head forward and blocked Garnet's incoming punch with her helmet. Garnet, undeterred, readied another punch.
"Steven! Ronnie Anne! RUN!" she yelled, as she and the invader clashed their weapons together over and over again.
Ronnie Anne looked over at Steven, scanning his face and body language for any sign of fear. To her relief - and immense pride - she couldn't see a single trace of fear, or hesitation, or anything indicating that he had any intention of obeying Garnet. The short, stout boy wore a defiant frown, both of his hands clenched into fists and his feet planted firmly upon the shore.
"You're not going anywhere, are you?" she asked.
"I said no backing out and I meant it," he replied, before unclenching one of his hands and holding it out towards her. "Let's get these bozos off our earth. Together."
Beaming, she swung her hand forward and snatched his out of the air, clenching it as tight as she could. But something peculiar happened right after the handshake was completed; his hand, once firm, began to dissolve in her grip, and she could feel parts of him drifting through her fingers like grains of sand. At the same, his skin started radiating a luminescent pink glow - faint at first, but stronger and deeper with each passing second, and accompanied by a sharp, piercing hum. A quick glance downward revealed that her skin was glowing the exact same shade of pink. Before she could even ask what was going on, the glow enveloped her field of vision, blinding her.
And then... everything went black, and the world around her fell silent.
She awoke some indeterminate amount of time later in a daze, and found herself lying down on the shore. Her groggy eyes blinked open, and began to wander about as she tried to get her bearings straight. Her eyes rested upon her legs, which she noticed were considerably longer than she remembered (not to mention lighter, taking on more of a milky shade of tan). As her gaze drifted downward, she saw that her feet were as naked as the day they were born - and right beside her feet were her sneakers, which were now at least two sizes too small.
"Wha...?"
Confused, she gave herself a nervous patdown, and her fingers grazed a hard, glassy surface in the middle of her now-bare midriff. She looked down, and there was Steven's gem, resting right inside her navel.
"Steven?! What did you- what did I-"
She leaped to her feet, and saw that all of the other gems, both friendly and hostile, were staring at her. Jasper and Peridot wore expressions of horrified disgust; Pearl and Amethyst were closer to bewildered awe; and then there was Garnet, who bore a grin of excited glee.
"S-Steven?" uttered Amethyst. "Ronnie Anne?...Stevonnie Anne?"