"Okay, so, what exactly is Fulmas like?" – Steven asked the Amethyst while running to catch up to her, as she was walking at a quick pace to her objective and couldn't wait for Steven.
"I lug big boxes around, see." – Amethyst answered. "Sometimes I get to go down into the mines, and sometimes I get to go to fulmini cities too."
"That's all you ever do? What about the other gems?" – Steven asked. It sounded like the labor-ridden work gems still had to endure during Era 2, and that went against everything Steven fought for for gemkind.
"Well, yeah. 'Course, there's tons of work to be done. All the minerals won't mine themselves. But, I'm glad I'm just carrying stuff instead of mining. Now THAT's the real work." – the Amethyst explained.
"Do you guys like working so much like that?" – Steven said. Maybe, they weren't forced to this labor, but actually enjoyed it? That was still kinda messed up… but at least it would be their choice.
"Yeah, I mean, what else 's there, you know? What would we even do?" – Amethyst answered casually while picking up another large box.
Steven stared at the pile of boxes. It must have been a lot for these gems to carry around if they were consistently busy. The phrase "Steven's here to help!" flashed through his mind, as traumatic as it was for him. Despite everything he went through, he still had the innate compulsion to help others, as it was still his calling to alleviate the pain, sadness or troubles of other people, no matter what. Well, there was nothing wrong with that, as long as he didn't get obsessive about it… Though, it was messed up that just a simple act of helping someone had complexes and hang-ups that came with it. Only Steven Universe was capable of pulling himself into a net like this. A net that he could never get out of…
"Hey, I can help you with that. Do you need anything else being lifted?" – Steven helpfully asked, trying to push the negative thought process deep down.
"Uh, yeah, 'kay." – Amethyst answered, not being used to acts of kindness like this. "Gotta take that one too." – she pointed at the box next to it, which was even bigger. Though, it was no biggie for Steven. After all, Steven's here to…
Stop it.
"So, you really don't know who I am?" – Steven asked her as they lugged the crates together. It was not out of vanity, rather, he had a suspicion they had no idea what was going on outside of Fulmas, and wanted to confirm it.
"You're a helpful little buddy, but other 'n that, nope." – Amethyst casually answered. If she hadn't been holding a heavy box, she would have shrugged.
"Steven Universe… Son of Rose Quartz…"
"Oh, I do know Rose Quartz! She shattered Pink Diamond!" – Amethyst pointed out. "Tha's why we're in Era 2 in the first place!"
Steven sighed. This was gonna be a big one. And not something he was keen on reliving. Sins of the mother… well, the more people knew, the better.
"Mmmmrgh… what the heck just happened?" – Lars asked after Ben detransformed from Armordrillo and helped him stand up. "Wait… did the ceiling fall in? Are we trapped?" – He asked somewhat frantically, ran over to the wall and started digging through it with his hands.
"Dude, what the hell, calm down!" – Ben restrained him from behind. "Not even Taydenite can dig through all that! And it might collapse on us even more!"
"Okay, okay, get off of me!" – Lars said as he forced himself out of Ben's grip. "I just… don't like the idea of getting trapped in a cave like this."
"Why? You didn't have claustrophobia until now." – Ben pointed out.
"Yeah, well, until now, we had a way out. Now we're blocked in. And it's not claustrophobia. I just don't like these caves because…" – he hesitated. "I died in one."
"Okay…" – Ben said, unsure where to go on from here. That probably had something to do with his pink skin, something he never really asked about. He probably wouldn't want to talk about that, so Ben decided to be pragmatic about this.
"Well, we don't know for sure if we're trapped. There's a tunnel right there and maybe it's gonna circle back and lead us back to the big chamber. Or maybe a different level of the mine." – Ben suggested.
"Or maybe right to the minecrawler nest." – Lars remarked.
"Relax, I've been through worse." – Ben assured him, saying that there was nothing to worry about for him. And that just grinded on Lars' nerves in a very specific, very aggravating way.
"Oh, here we go again, the great Ben Tennyson graces us mere mortals with the mythical feats of strength he has endured. How would we ever survive without his herculean might?" – Lars sarcastically went on. "Get over yourself! It's your fault we're in this mess in the first place!" – he blew up at Ben.
"My fault?! How?" – Ben said, shocked.
"We wouldn't be stuck here right now if the human jackhammer didn't bring down the house!"
"You were cornered by the minecrawlers! I saved your pink ass!" – Ben yelled in response.
"I had them!"
"You did NOT have them! They were coming down from the ceiling on you!" – Ben responded.
"Well, did you have to pick that specific alien in the first place?" – Lars continued criticizing him. "You got like a hundred to choose from and you pick the walking cave-in hazard!"
"I didn't have the time to choose, okay? It was a do-or-die moment!" – Ben defended himself. That, and the Omnitrix had a tendency to mess up the transformations, too, but that wouldn't help him in the argument, so he didn't bring that part up.
"So, is this what happens in all of the Ben Tennyson legends?" – Lars condescendingly asked him. "You make things worse until someone else fixes it for you?"
"I do NOT make things worse!" – Ben yelled. But, on that one, he couldn't be so sure. There were tons of times… "What's your problem, dude?" – he then asked Lars. "It's not just the cave-in, you've been like this to me all day. It's like you have it out for me. Did I do something to you, or… something?"
At that, Lars didn't respond. He just sulkily looked down. He didn't even realize it himself, but now that Ben had pointed it out, he noticed it too. But, he still didn't wanna say it out loud. He didn't want to, but now that he stayed quiet too long Ben knew he'd be right, so he'd have to say it. As he struggled with admitting the answer, he twiddled his toe thumbs inside his shoes because of the awkward situation he's gotten himself in.
"It's because no matter where I go or what I do, I keep hearing your name everywhere." – Lars finally admitted. Though, the admission was agonizing, as he almost chocked on his own words that were stuck in his throat. Ben was about to respond, but Lars kept going, so Ben didn't say anything.
"Whenever I help people, I keep getting compared to you because you're the only human they've ever heard of." – Lars continued. "Most of the time, they don't even know about Earth so I have to explain it by saying "the planet Ben Tennyson" is from. Once, me and my crew recovered some stolen shipment for someone and the guy had the audacity to tell me that you would have done it sooner."
"Yeah, that was pretty ungrateful of him." – Ben agreed, to show that he could relate to Lars. He'd gotten his fair share of crazy people, too.
"So, it's like I'm always in your shadow, no matter how many people I help!" – Lars fessed up. Though, it came off whiny to him, and he cringed at his own words. He could just imagine how Ben would tell him to stop bitching about it. But, he had stepped into it now, and decided to go full-in. "And I finally stated liking myself, you know… back on Earth, I was not a… great person. I was petty, lazy, shallow… and worst of all, I didn't like myself. Not just because of those things, but the things that I liked to do, the things that made me happy… I was scared people would mock me for it and I'd end up embarrassing myself."
"Things like what?" – Ben asked to clarify.
"Oh, baking pastries…" – Lars answered. From how casually he said it, it seemed like he wasn't ashamed of it anymore. "And now that I'm here, I can finally do the things I want to do, and be a useful person, and what do I keep hearing? How some other dude with a bajilion powers on his wrist would have done the job better than me!"
"Hey, you shouldn't worry about that." – Ben said, somewhat compassionately. "People are stupid and ungrateful and even spiteful. But that shouldn't stop you from doing the right thing." – he continued, and put his hand on Lars' shoulder to reassure him. Though, that felt a little weird, and not just because Lars was taller than him. "If you really want to be a hero, and not just for the fame, then none of that matters. And trust me, I think you've got what it takes."
"You do?" – Lars said, somewhat surprised at Ben being so mellow after their shouting match. One that, let's face it, Lars himself instigated.
"Yeah. You're risking everything, going up against the most powerful military force in the universe, all for a planet that doesn't matter to you one bit. You think anyone other than a hero would do that?"
"Well... when you put it that way…" – Lars awkwardly said. "Sorry for being a jackass, by the way."
"Hey, it's not like you were wrong about Armordrillo." – Ben admitted.
"Let's just get out of here. Come on."
Ben thought back on the conversation he had had. During the whole time, it felt… somewhat out of place. Who was he to tell someone else what it meant to be a hero? Sure, Lars needed it, but was he really an authority? He hadn't even had the Omnitrix for two years, if you don't count the time he had it as a kid, and in this time, did he really become an expert on hero morals?
And yes, he was aware that he did give these kinds of speeches to others before. Speeches on what a hero should be. Even then, he wondered if he was the right person to talk about this.
Hmph. All this time with Steven had made him introspective and self-doubting too. Maybe that was a good thing.
"Y'gotta be pulling my gem." – the Amethyst told Steven, barely even having processed everything that he had told her.
"I'm telling you the truth!" – Steven assured her. "Why else do you think the Hessonite in charge of this colony abandoned it to High Override? The Gem Empire is dismantled!"
"And, Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond herself all along?" – she reiterated, just to make sure.
"Yeah." – Steven nodded. When he had recorded the message for the whole universe to hear, he was hoping that was the last time he'd be going through this explanation. But, that was never going to stay that way.
"And you're her… son? What exactly is that?" – Amethyst asked, somewhat confused at that last part.
"Ah, well…" – Steven blushed. Explaining this part was always awkward. "It's when organic beings…"
"Oh, like when the fulmini make little fulmini?" – Amethyst interrupted, happy to express her knowledge.
Steven let out a sigh of relief. "Yeah, exactly. But, Pink Diamond is… gone, and I'm the one that has her gem now." – he told her.
"So… you're Pink Diamond now?" – Amethyst asked to confirm.
Steven cringed at being referred to with that.
"Well, my name is Steven. But I am the one that has the pink… diamond." – he said, put the heavy box down and pulled his shirt up to show her the gem on his navel. The Amethyst leaned down to look at it from up close, mesmerized by it.
"OH!" – she suddenly yelled and dropped the box, and… started crying? "I just realized! Sorry, my Diamond, for calling you a "helpful little buddy" earlier! 'T won't happen again!" – she apologized through tears, bowing down and doing the horrid Diamond salute as if she was pleading for her life.
Steven nearly panicked himself at the sight of it. Was this really the state that the Diamond authority put these gems in? This was horrible!
"No, no, you don't have to do that, please." – he immediately told Amethyst. "Calm down. I'm not angry with you.
"You're not?" – the Amethyst asked through sobs. She was on her knees, but still taller than Steven, so she ended up looking down on him pleadingly instead of up.
"No, no, I don't want any of that Diamond stuff!" – Steven assured her. He'd be saying this even if he wasn't trying to calm her down. "You don't have to talk to me like I'm another one of the Diamonds or your bosses or whatever." – he tried to explain to her.
Amethyst was no longer crying, but she looked very confused now. And Steven was aware of how hard it was for gems to not treat him as a Diamond, even when he insisted on it.
"You can just talk to me like you would… to one of your Amethyst friends. Alright?" – he told her in a friendly manner. "Now, you gotta get up, people are starting to stare at us."
"Okay!" – Amethyst said cheerily, sprung up and got her box again. You couldn't even tell that just a moment ago, she was bawling her eyes out, with how quickly her mood had changed. "As you say, my… Amethyst." – she bowed again, though, this time, with a smile. Steven didn't even know if she was joking or not, but decided it was best to ignore it.
Though, Steven envied her ability to just cheer up this easily. Now, he was more bummed out about the interaction than the Amethyst was. This whole trip was to find out who he was without his legacy overshadowing him, but he kept running into it with every step he took. But, his insistence on helping was what kept guiding him into these situations. And that was not worth giving up because of his mood swings.
Ben and Lars had been going around the caves for a while. Ben tried transforming into Wildmutt again, but there was no scent connecting them to the way out, nor could he track the correct passage via echolocation. The only thing he could sense were a few more minecrawlers crawling around. If there was a way out, or at least a way back to the chambers they had been in, it was too hard to find in the tenebrous labyrinth. He had other aliens at his disposal, but the Omnitrix had been put on recharge mode. So, they were just stretching time till it activated again and Ben tried to use a speedster alien to scout ahead quickly. Probably Fasttrack, since XLR8's wheels weren't suited for uneven cave terrain.
"So, uh…" – Ben tried to make conversation. It was quiet as a mausoleum in there. "If you don't mind asking… how did that happen to you?" – he asked and pointed at Lars. Specifically, he meant Lars' skin, but that part was hard to tell.
"What?" – Lars asked for a moment. "Oh, me being pink? Yeah, that was when I died." – he said, completely casually. No ironic undertones or resentment to the topic was detected in his voice, so maybe that was okay to talk about.
"How did it happen?" – Ben asked, interested.
"It was just when me and Steven had met the Off Colours. We were hiding out in underground caves on Homeworld – Steven was on trial by Blue and Yellow Diamond and he escaped and saved me while he was at it." – Lars explained.
"Steven did all that?" – Ben asked him. He had Steven imagined as more of a goody two-shoes, so his respect for Steven, which was admittedly already high, raised even more by a little bit. "Ran away from a TRIAL?"
"It was total kangaroo court, trust me." – Lars casually shrugged it off. "But anyway, we were being chased in these caves by Homeworld drones, and I, uh… well, I blew a drone up and myself with it."
"Yeesh." – Ben reacted. For a regular guy, that was pretty heroic of him. Honestly, if he was like this, Ben didn't see why Lars had any sort of self-doubts.
"That was the first ever good thing I had ever done." – Lars continued. "First, and almost last. I was a coward until then, always running away from danger. And… from myself, as cheesy as it sounds. Running away is what got me stranded on a ship going to Homeworld in the first place. But, I finally found it in me to stop running, just that one time, and it changed me forever." – he told Ben.
"So, how are you not… dead?" – Ben asked. Maybe he didn't actually die, and it was one of those stories where you die metaphorically, and become a new person.
"Well, turns out Steven can just bring people back from the dead." – Lars quickly said. Until now, he was speaking slowly, processing the words as he said them, but this comment was just thrown out quickly and casually as if it was nothing.
"Steven can WHAT?!" – Ben's jaw dropped. "He never told me that!"
"That was the first time he found out he could do that, too."
"Was it like a "magic healing tears" kind of resurrection or "true love's kiss?", then?" – Ben asked with a cheeky grin on his face.
"Wh- ugh, ew!" – Lars grimaced. "No, it was the tears. Apparently, something like that happened to his lion, too. So now, I'm back, I haven't aged a day, I have a transdimensional portal in my hair that only Steven can access and I'm… pink." – Lars concluded. "But you know what? I'd do it all over again." – he confidently declared, having not regretted the person it had led him to become.
"After all that, you should be the one lecturing me about heroism." – Ben jokingly said.
"Hmph." – Lars snorted. "Well, I gotta figure it out myself first…"
As they were talking, a shadow quickly crept towards them, glowing a luminescent blue in spots beneath its armor. It was a minecrawler!
"I got this." – Ben confidently said as he quickly drew both of his hands in, with his right index and middle fingers on top of his left wrist to activate the Omnitrix, as he had done many times before. He scrolled through the dial, looking to pick the first good alien that came in the selection.
But as he was doing that, Lars quickly drew one of his laser pistols from the inside of his trenchcoat and, assuming a shooting position by putting one of his legs forward and slightly bending his knees and leaning forward, took two shots at the creature – one at its joints, where the limb connected with its torso, and the other one right in its open jaw. After two critical hits, the minecrawler decided nothing was worth this pain and immediately turned away.
Lars turned his head back, with a smug, satisfied smile, looking at Ben, who didn't even get the chance to transform due to how quick the encounter was.
"Okay, okay, you got this this time, hotshot." – Ben admitted and rolled his eyes. Satisfied, Lars pretended to blow the smoke off the pistol's barrel, then put it back into its strap within his trenchcoat.
"By the way, did you see anything on that minecrawler's back?" – Lars asked Ben.
"Uh, no, why?" – Ben answered.
"I thought something looked strange about it… but I think it was the shadows playing with me. Must have been the armor shell on its back."
"Yeah, well, we should still follow it." – Ben pointed out.
"Follow it? Why?"
"We are here to find their nest so they'll stop attacking the miners here. That's what High Override asked us to do, remember?" – Ben reminded him.
"True. But it'd be nice to know which way to retreat if we found them." – Lars retorted. Though, since it was their only lead and it was slipping away, they followed it.
Though, the pursuit had to stop, as they ran into something far more deadly than a single minecrawler. Surprised, they stood cautiously while several guns were being pointed right at them.
"So you guys really don't know anything at all about what happened on Homeworld? You didn't receive the transmission I sent to all the colonies?" – Steven asked Amethyst as they were carrying more crates around.
"Nope." – Amethyst answered in a carefree tone. It didn't seem like she was bothered by it that much, either.
"That's weird. The message should have gone through no matter what." – Steven wondered. Unless…
Though, before he elaborated on that thought process, he noticed something in his line of sight, and realized where they were. Standing at the bottom of a canyon, in a narrow slit between the cliffs. Cliffs which had unsettling, person-shaped holes decorating them across their length… the mechanical drones resembling the shape of a virus, walking along the ledges…
Steven's legs got rooted to the ground. He was in a Kindergarten. Though, this one was much, much different from any other Kindergarten he had been to before. The Gems were all over the place, working, giving and receiving orders, operating machinery and carrying items themselves, just like at the mines. The Injectors were active and walking around, a sight which was definitely uncanny to Steven, who had been used to seeing them in a state of disrepair. And, if all of this wasn't evidence enough…
Poof.
The cliffside burst open and a Jasper emerged from the earth, then jumped down onto solid ground. She wasn't as big as imposing as the Jasper Steven knew all too well, rather normal for a Quartz. Immediately, she looked around and went to the nearest minecart to work.
The miracle of gem birth was lost on Steven, who was more horrified by the fact that in Era 3, in this day and age, there was an active Kindergarten sapping life and resources out of a planet!
"Um… Amethyst?" – Steven asked with a thin voice, shocked by the realization.
"Ye?"
"Why is the Kindergarten active?"
"Uhhh… So that we can make more gems that mine more resources for Fulmas?" – Amethyst answered. She didn't understand what was the big deal about it. Especially coming from a Diamond…'s son.
"So… High Override is okay with it?" – Steven asked, surprised.
"Yeah. He's the one that made it start working again after Hessonite abandoned the colony."
"Huh." – Steven said, wondering. Well, if High Override was okay with it… but then again, it wasn't just High Override that should be concerned with this. In the long-term, this was bad for Fulmas, and it seemed like all High Override wanted to get out of it was free gem laborers.
Though, this thought process was interrupted when Steven noticed a commotion up ahead. The Jasper from earlier seemed to have dropped a crate, and two Fulmini guards were yelling at her.
"What's going on here?" – he immediately intervened.
"Who the hell are you?" – one of the guards backhandedly asked him.
"I'm Steven Universe." – Steven firmly said.
"And who the hell is Steven Universe?" – the other guard sneeringly asked. Though, he didn't even wait for an answer. "Get out of here. This Jasper damaged mining equipment."
"She just popped out five minutes ago, give her a break!" – Steven stood up for her. The Jasper in question was standing her. She was experiencing everything for the first time and didn't know if this was supposed to be normal or not, so she kept looking wide-eyed at Steven and the fulmini guards.
"Scram, runt!" – the guard growled at him. He had obviously no idea who he was dealing with.
"What are you gonna do, punish her?" – Steven then demandingly asked. "You do realize that you don't have to do the things they tell you to, right?" – he then turned and said to Jasper. "You don't even have to stay on this planet if you don't want to."
"She's staying right here." – the other guard menacingly told him. He even grabbed her on the shoulder. "We need all the workforce we can use because of the incursean invasion. High Override's orders." – he firmly said, with threatening tones in his voice.
"Oh no, she's not." – Steven retorted. Anger was building in his voice now, and he didn't care if they needed the workforce. If the situation was so dire, the fulmini guard could have gone and done it himself. "I think you have the gems here confused with a slave."
He knew that the guards had no intentions of backing down. And he was sick of this attitude they had. Treating gems like that was unacceptable. And this was unacceptable.
BAM.
The fulmini guard that had grabbed the Jasper's hand was sent flying back after Steven's bubble knuckle made contact with it. The other one reacted by surcharging the energy mace he was holding with extra power, and swinging it towards Steven… only for Steven to swiftly grab it out of motion and stop him, then create a shield in front of himself and pushing it forward to knock the other fulmini away.
"My name…" – Steven said demandingly to the two fallen guards. "…is Steven Quartz Universe. Son of Pink Diamond." – the words that he hated uttering came out of his mouth. "And I'm the one responsible for gems everywhere, on any planet. And if this is how you treat gems here… then me and High Override need to have a conversation." – he stated and turned away.
"Come on. You should come with me." – he told the confused Jasper. "You're coming too." – he dragged the Amethyst along with him.
The three of them went back to the warp pad. Steven had two things on his mind before he confronted High Override with this. And the first one was Jasper.
Steven took them to the Galaxy warp, and in a moment, he brought them to Homeworld. Even though he had been here less than two hours ago, and wasn't exactly keen on the encounter he had gone through here.
"You can do whatever you want, and go wherever you want to go." – he assured her. "I can't come with you right now, but the other gems can help you." – he explained.
"But… I'm supposed to be on Fulmas." – the Jasper blankly answered.
"You're not "supposed" to be anywhere you don't want to, trust me." – Steven assured her. "If you want to go back, you can, but they'll make you work and be mean to you, just like how they were now."
Though, he really didn't want her to choose staying on Fulmas. Would he let someone willingly go into what was basically slavery? Or would he have to force her against her will?
Fortunately, he didn't have to find out, as Jasper made slow steps towards the Diamond Palace. With the hesitant pace that she was going with, it felt like releasing a wild animal back into the wild. Though, Steven was happy for her. And not just gems, but fulmini as well.
Meanwhile, Amethyst wasn't sure on what Steven was planning to do with her. Let her go, just like he did Jasper? She didn't feel ready for it. She didn't know if she even wanted to. She liked it on Fulmas. She had friends there, too.
"Okay, as for you…" – Steven turned to Amethyst. "I'm sorry I'm distracting you from work, but I need more information from you. And if you want to, you can stay here on Homeworld afterwards, too."
"No, I like it on Fulmas." – Amethyst nervously answered.
"Are you sure?" – Steven asked her. He wanted to exhaust every possibility he could to prevent another situation like this.
"It's my home, innit?" – Amethyst answered.
"Do… do the fulmini not let you gems warp to Homeworld? Are you being forced to work like that down there? I really need you answer me honestly on this."
"Well…" – Amethyst considered. "They never told me I had to do it. I just like doing it." – she admitted. "And I heard of some gems leaving, too. Never seen 'em after that, though."
"Are you sure? Cause from what I saw, those guards are pretty rough…"
"Eh, no one likes those two anyway. The fulmini are pretty nice as long as the work is going well…" – Amethyst assured him.
"Right…" – Steven said, doubting that.
Steven sighed. If nothing else, at least these gems weren't being shackled and whipped. Though, the situation was still pretty sketchy. Why didn't they receive Steven's message to the universe? Without a word, Steven warped them back to the Fulmas pad of the Galaxy Warp.
"I need you to follow me." – he told her as he went to a normal, non-Galaxy warp pad. In another photon jump, they were standing in front of the Gem Communications Hub of Fulmas. Though, Steven's suspicions rang true. It was disassembled. In fact, it was wrecked.
The image really reminded him of the same structure that they had back on Earth, back when it was wrecked asunder by Sardonyx… and then Sugilite. However, since those days, the Earth Communications Hub now was standing strong, and was, in fact, the key to Steven spreading the message of Era 3 to all the gem colonies… all except this one, apparently.
"Do you know… what happened here?" – Steven asked Amethyst.
"Oh, yeah. The High Override…"
Steven hated that name each time he heard it.
"…told us that this was an attack by the terrorist group." – Amethyst casually explained.
"I'm sorry, what?" – Steven said in confusion.
"Okay, so, did High Override mention there being heavily armed fulmini and gems deep in the caves down here?" – Ben asked Lars while the two of them were standing with their hands in the air, surrounded by the forementioned fulmini and gems.
"High Override sent you?" – one of the fulmini asked him. She seemed angry, specifically at the fact that they were discovered.
"Hey, hey, we just want to find the minecrawler nest." – Lars diplomatically started explaining. That's what High Override asked us to do. They need all the resources they can get because the planet is about to be attacked by the incurseans."
"Oh, yeah, the incurseans. We got so deep into Fulmas that I forgot about them." – Ben remarked. "Just show us where this nest is and we won't tell him anything about… whatever it is you guys are doing down here."
A silence followed their statements, and suddenly…
"GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Everyone around them burst out laughing, fulmini and gems alike, and their laughter echoed through the caves all around them. That reaction left Ben and Lars just… confused.
"So, they really don't know we're down here!" – one of the gems said while wiping her tears.
"Come on." – one of the fulmini told Ben and Steven. "We're gonna show you your "minecrawler nest"".
Ben and Lars looked at each other. What choice did they have but to follow?
Great to see you made it this far. I really am grateful to each and every reader of this story, especially the ones that follow it all the way though.
As for this Fulmas arc, we're in the deep of it now. I wasn't sure how many chapters would our heroes spend here, and we're racking up to 4. I'm not even sure if 5 is gonna cover it, we might go on a half-year streak and do 6 chapters, just like a comic book arc. That would be cool, but... we'll see.
Especially now that I'm focusing more on both expanding the plot as well as the character moments, I think a 4-5k word range isn't enough for each chapter. This one is about 5200 words, and I might just increase it to 5-6k words in the future as I get into thicker plots in future arcs... maybe that way it won't take 6 chapters to finish, either.
And now we go to the full extent of the splitting up where I paired Ben with Lars. I really wanted to touch on Lars while I was using him instead of him being a stagnant character... I want it for all the characters I use, but some have such small roles that it's impossible. Lars, however, deserves a main character role, at least in this story arc, and I'm making the most of it. He's one of the most developed characters in Steven Universe, and he already feels like a Ben 10 characters, being a cool space bounty hunter that could easily stand next to someone like Rad Dudesman and it wouldn't feel out of place. Though, it's a shame I can't bring his crew with him...
Meanwhile, Steven's having his own problems right now, from his self-doubts rising up to him being forced to take on the responsibilities of a Diamond... not to mention facing borderline slavery of the Gems. And he doesn't have anyone to turn to right now, as he's away from the Crystal Gems and Ben is stuck down in the mines. He's on his own on this one.
Hell, even Ben realized that his confident façade has small cracks in it.
As for Fulmas... I'll admit, I didn't want the fulmini to be cruel to the gems. At least, not initially, when plotting out this story arc. It got worse and worse, but I had to do it to drive a point. Though, it's mostly the guards, and I wanted to show that the rest of the population is friendly towards gems, but I didn't exactly get the opportunity so far.
Next month on A Trip to Remember: The end of the Fulmas Arc! Maybe! Who knows!