AN: Trying to get through Steven Universe. Gotta admit that this jump has gone longer than I planned.
Chapter 10
The next morning saw Lapis relaxing in the hot spring. She honestly loved this thing. The idea of simply being in hot water for the pleasure of the feeling was an alien concept to Homeworld yet sung to her nature as a lapis lazuli. She laid her head back on the ledge of the pool and just floated as she tried to sort through her feelings.
Last night had been good. No. Last night had been very good. She had felt something she hadn't in a long, long time. She had felt wanted.
Homeworld had seen her as simply one of many replaceable Lapis Lazuli, they had mistaken her for a Crystal Gem and taken her as prisoner of war. If they had even noticed that they had lost a Lapis Lazuli of their own then they didn't care nor did they even ask who she was when they trapped her in that mirror for interrogation.
The Crystal Gems were little better. They attacked all Gem locations on earth not just the ones that were involved in production or held fighting forces. They had also never even tried to figure out who was trapped in the mirror when they found it; they had simply thrown her into storage. For all they had known she could have been one of their own number but they didn't even care.
Alex and Lyn care, Morrigan cares. She thought to herself with a smile.
They cared for her, they wanted her and yet they were also quite happy to give her space when she needed it. They could also do this thing with their tongue that felt absolutely amazing. Homeworld Gems didn't know what they were missing.
She felt warmth on her face as the rising morning sun shone through the crystal walls of the hot spring. Life, she thought, is good.
"Umm, hello? Is anyone in there?"
Lapis opened her eyes to the sparkling room to see Steven standing awkwardly at the door with his hands over his eyes.
"You can come in, you know." She told the human.
"Oh, ahh ok?" Steven marched forward but with his eyes still covered he walked right into the water.
"Ahh!" He fell in with a ridiculous splash.
Lapis sniggered and manipulated the water until he was upright and across from her.
Steven opened his eyes to the sight of a Lapis' smooth blue body floating on the sun-sparkling water.
"You're naked!" he gasped and covered his eyes again.
Lapis didn't really understand why humans reacted so strangely to nudity. Alex and Lyn liked her when she was wasn't wearing anything after all. Still, they had said something about societal expectations and clothing. Lapis floated herself out of the water until she stood on the edge of the pool, she willed herself clothed in a swirling flash of light.
"Is this better?" she asked as he pulled the wet boy out of the water and then the water away from his soaked form.
"Much, thank you." Steven answered. "Umm do you know where everyone is?"
"Alex and Lyn were still in bed when I got up." Lapis said. She didn't understand those two. They looked cute together and had snuggled closer when she had slipped out from in-between them. She wasn't sure what 'underage sibling: no touch!' meant but she was sure Alex would get over it.
"Right." Steven said as he tried not to think about naked Gems in bed.
"Morrigan should also be by soon." Lapis continued without noticing Steven's distractedness. "Why did you need to see them?"
"Oh, umm well, we woke up and realised that we never actually told the Gems we were OK and so we should probably do that."
"Hmm.. well let's go see if everyone is up."
They walked back to the main chamber only to find the Alex and Lyn already there in discussion. A red-faced Connie was also there holding a plate with two crusty rolls on it and was trying not to draw attention to herself.
"You didn't seem to mind where my hands went earlier in the night." Lyn was saying to a cringing Alex.
"That's because we had Lapis between us." Alex responded.
"Why would that matter?"
"I don't know, it's just different somehow. Please?"
"Fine. But I make no promises that I won't get grabby when you're using me as a hug pillow."
"Thank you." Alex sighed in relief or possibly some sort of defeat — it was hard to tell.
"I see you two are up." Lapis said.
"Lapis! Why did you leave us alone?" Alex whined.
"I wanted a bath." Lapis responded though continued in a smaller voice, "I was very sticky."
"Well, I wanted to give you this." Alex said as he threw Lapis a slim smartphone. "I appeared in the Warehouse this morning. I guess you've decided to stick with us."
Lapis smiled at her 'companion phone,' "I guess it does."
"Ah, Steven. Connie has your breakfast and then I'll see you off." At Steven's confused look he continued with, "The warp pad doesn't work without authorisation."
"Oh, umm thanks." Steven took a roll from Connie. It was a simple breakfast of bacon and a fried egg on crusty fresh baked buttered bread rolls. "Umm what's going to happen with Yellow?" He asked around a mouthful.
"I'm not sure yet." Alex admitted.
"Maybe we can send her home and they'll know we're too strong for them and they can leave us alone?" Steven said hopefully though not even Connie looked like she thought that would work.
Alex shook his head. "It wouldn't work. They'll just use what Yellow has learnt about our defences to hit us even harder."
"You don't seem too worried about them attacking." Connie commented.
"I've still got some tricks up my sleeve and to be honest I could still run and hide for the next six months if I thought we had to."
"That's not very brave. It's our responsibility to protect the world and other people."
Alex shrugged. "I never said I was brave. I just want to survive with those whom I care about."
Neither Connie or Steven looked like they agreed. Alex might have been more on board with the whole 'spiderman-esque guilt-trip power-responsibility' angle if the whole situation wasn't so screwed up by Rose thousands of years ago. She treated the rebellion like a game and only really matured when she lost.
"Now, speaking of survival, there are some things you should know before you go."
Steven and Connie perked up and listened.
Alex took up a data crystal and passed it to Steven.
"That contains information on the location of something called the 'Cluster.' It's a Homeworld super weapon that's been incubating in the earth's crust for the last five thousand years and is set to emerge within the next year, destroying the planet in the process."
"WHAT?!" Steven yelled.
"You can stop it right?" Connie asked worriedly.
"Nope."
"WHAT?!" Both the kids yelled.
"I can't but Steven can." Alex clarified.
"How am I supposed to do that?" Steven started hyperventilating.
"You'll need to reach the Cluster, empathically connect to it and tell it to not take form but to bubble itself and try and connect with the Gem shards that it's composed of. I'll drop you off a ship in the next week or so that'll get you to the Cluster but talking to it is up to you."
"But I don't know how to do that!"
"You've already done something similar when you got through the Centipeetle Gem monster." Alex reassured him. "You just need to work on your abilities. Maybe get Garnet to help you with meditation."
"You really think I can do it?"
"I know you can."
"Ok, anything else?" Steven calmed down somewhat.
"Yeah, you've accessed the place inside Lion's mane, right?"
"How do you even know about all this?" Steven asked bewildered. He hadn't told anyone about Lion's Pink Dimension.
"Because I'm awesome."
"…fine, don't tell me." Steven grumbled. "And yes, I can go inside Lion's mane."
"You'll find Rose's sword in there which will probably freak Pearl out but you'll also find a bubbled Gem. That Gem is named Bismuth and she used to be a Crystal Gem until Rose and her fought about how to win the war."
"So, I should keep her bubbled?"
"That's up to you. But if you do let her our then give her this." Alex gave Steven a second crystal. "It has instructions for her to get into contact with me and I can direct her to others who would support her methodology."
After everyone finished up their breakfast Alex led Steven and Connie over to the Warp Pad. The two stood in the centre and held hands so that Connie wouldn't be left behind.
"Oh, and one more thing." Alex said. "What I'm about to tell you should probably not be spread around and certainly shouldn't be mentioned to Bismuth if you let her out."
"What is it?" Steven asked.
"Pearl will be able to answer any questions." Alex met eyes with Steven. "Rose was Pink Diamond."
"WHAAaaaa—" Steven's exclamation was cut off as Alex activated the Warp, sending the two kids back to the Crystal Gems.
There was a moment of silence in the room until Lyn burst out laughing. "Did you see his face?"
Lapis just sniggered.
Alex shrugged. "The kid has to clean up all of Rose's messes, he had a right to know. I just didn't want to deal with the shouting."
⦖⋄⦕
Lyn watched as the Alexa carefully implanted the ecto-enchanted crystal into the Phase-ship's gravity drive. When Alexa was happy that the components were all working well together, she waved her hand at the drive which floated up to and recombined with the ship proper.
Gem-tech still amazed her. Her 'Primitive Technology Adaption' perk allowed her to understand how it worked but even then it still seemed like magic rather than science. Her perk also allowed her to come up with interesting uses for existing earth technology to further enhance the alien technology.
She remembered the look of childish glee on Alex's face when she had suggested using a microwave oven and a surround sound system to induce harmonic frequency in the gravity engine resonance crystals. He had laughed his head off when he found that the ship performed best when syncopated rhythms were applied, something about the ship running best on 'Smooth Jazz.' He had of course replicated the modification with crystal components rather than a bulky microwave oven and a set of speakers because they were much smaller and more durable but she was happy to help.
Alexa stepped back and admired the completed Phase ship: the fourth she had made in the last two months. The first prototype ship had been gifted to Steven and the Gems; as promised, two weeks after Yellow's attack. That left these three ships taking up most of the space in the Warehouse.
Lyn ran her hand over the smooth blue-black crystal of the ship. The design was similar to the Trapeze in that it was modelled from the cut of a gemstone though the Phase ships were slightly bigger and with a shield-cut shape with the pointed forward part of the ship being longer than the slightly rounded back. The biggest difference was the use of an ecto-enchanted crystal to give the ship intangibility and invisibility like the Spectres. Not only was this an incredible defensive and stealth upgrade, it also allowed for an increased speed and an independence from established star-charts to navigate at FTL speeds. Why worry about deflector shield output when space dust just went right through you. They had calculated that they could possibly even survive phasing through the heart of a star - not that they were planning to do such a thing of course. Lyn wasn't completely sure what would happen if you introduced the artificial black hole of the gravity drive to a star but didn't think it would be good.
"If you build any more of these you're going to run out of space." Lyn commented.
"I'll put them in portraits when it gets to that stage, I just wanted to have them on hand while space flight was still an option."
"Did you ever figure out how Yellow go to earth so fast?" Lyn walked around the ship, her fingers trailing the side.
"Actually, the Gems found out first. Turns out she sent not just flask robonoids but also a plug robonoid and a central processing crystal of a Galaxy Warp. The plug robonoid was able to become the needed base systems and the flask robonoids were able to 'repair' it to functionality."
"So, she essentially just sent a new Galaxy Warp Pad to earth instead of repairing the one here?"
"That's right."
"Was that so hard to say?"
Alex rolled his eyes. "Anyway, the Gems found it and smashed it. If anyone else came through then they only had about an hour to do so."
"You know that's called foreshadowing, right?"
Alex sighed. "Yeah, I know."
Alex stretched out and made his way to a clear area in the warehouse where he had a couch and a minifridge set up. He threw a can of soda to Lyn and cracked one open himself before flopping onto the couch.
"Hey, I had a question." Lyn asked as she perched herself in the arm of the sofa.
"Yeah?"
"You can make Gems, right? Like with all their abilities and such?"
"Yeah? It's not too hard to make the Gemstone but it does take a lot of energy to Enlighten it. Why?"
"I was wondering what would happen if you ghost-fused with it like we did with the replica Time Medallions, would you be able to use the Gem abilities?"
"Ahh, I see what you're thinking." Alex nodded. "Unfortunately, it doesn't work. I've already tried it."
"Damn." Lyn took a sip of her drink.
"Why the long face? You already have ghost powers"
Everyone with the 'Accepting Physiology' perk had been given the half-ghost upgrade over the first few weeks in jump. Alex had realised that he had been incredibly reckless during his first jump when he upgraded three people in one night. He now knew that it was likely 'the drive' drawback that had made him so stupid. He had conducted multiple tests during this Jump before he had offered the choice to his companions.
Lyn had said he was being too cautious which had likely been true. Honestly, those first few weeks were a nightmare of construction, testing and preparations. He didn't even get to visit a town until two months into his time here. Even now there wasn't a day during this jump where either he or a duplicate wasn't making or experimenting with something.
Honestly? He was tired of this Jump and the Diamonds. He would seriously reconsider taking another 'targeted' drawback in the future.
"It's not that I want anything, I just thought having all the Gem powers would be neat."
Alex shook his head. "Nah, the ghost-fusion items have to be, for lack of a better term, 'equipable' for the powers to work when fused. We'll get better mileage out of an RPG style Jump with it, may the next one."
Lyn frowned. "Aren't the P-Comms made from Pearls? We can use those when we wear them."
Alex nodded. "True, but Pearls are special because they're artificial Gems. The ones in the P-comms aren't full Pearls in the terms of Gems but are actually based on the precursors to modern Pearls. It's why we can store things and use them as communicators and holographic displays but we can't actually make hard-light holographic clones or use the minor telekinetic abilities that Pearl has."
Lyn scrunched up her face and stuck her tongue out at Alex. "Gah, why are Gems so confusing? They can do this but not always and only if sentient and stupid rules."
"They're sentient supercomputer hard-light AIs contained in a superdense crystalline matrix within a Gemstone. The fact that they're used in a non-sentient state for basic technology is already ridiculous." Alex explained. "If it makes you feel better; I think I've worked out how to give everyone different Gem abilities eventually."
"How?!" Lyn perked up.
"I can instal a Gem into anyone with the 'Accepting Physiology' Perk but the Gems would conflict if I added more than one to a person."
"But we all already have a Gem."
"Yes, but you have more than one alt-form. I should be able to add a new Gem for every alt-form we pick up."
"Why haven't you mentioned this before now? I already have a human form you can add a Gem to." Lyn complained.
"Because I didn't want you to sacrifice a completely human form if we needed it to blend in at some point." Alex explained. "It'll have to wait until we each pick up more forms so that we have a human form to spare or we go to a Jump with an alt-form blender perk."
"I thought the plan was Harry Potter after this." Lyn questioned with a tilt of her head.
"It was, but I'm honestly getting mighty sick of having to switch between Human, Ghost and Gem all the time so I'm really tempted to go after an alt-form blender perk." Alex complained. "Do you know how many times I've walked face first into walls because I forgot I switched from ghost to Gem to use the computers?"
Lyn laughed. She had seen him do that a few times.
Any further conversation was cut off by a piercing wail from their P-Comms alerting them of Diamond movement.
Running out into the main chamber where the large monitors were set up Alex brought up the latest on from the Spectres.
Lapis and Morrigan entered the room from elsewhere in the temple.
"What's the situation?" Morrigan asked.
"Blue Diamond is on an Arm-Ship and heading this way."
Lyn glance Alex. "Do we have a plan?"
Alex eyed the live feed of Blue on her ship; her Pearl was monitoring the Gravity drive and was the only other Gem aboard.
"Yeah, I think I have a plan."
⦖⋄⦕
For the past five millennia Blue's primary emotion had been sadness. Now however, another emotion other than deep woe was colouring her actions. She was angry and if she was honest to herself, she was a little afraid but most of all: she was empty.
It had started with the loss of Pink. Not only did she miss her terribly but her death also proved that what was once considered eternal could still end. Her shattering had shaken a concept that White had instilled in her sisters and all other Gems. Diamonds are eternal. Diamonds are without equal. Diamonds are the ultimate authority. Pink's loss put the lie in 'Diamonds are Forever.'
And now Yellow was missing; she had gone after the Flawed Diamond and never returned nor made contact. Yellow's colonies had reached out to her own when communication had ceased. The poor Gems had been beside themselves without any direction.
"We are approaching the Earth-Star's system, my Diamond." Blue Pearl alerted her from the console as the ship dropped to sublight engines.
Blue sighed. Pink had loved this planet. Her first and her last colony. Blue had last been here four years ago during one of her many visits to… to where… she… to the place. She had wished to leave it as a testament of her sister's compassion; at least until the Cluster emerged. But now it was looking likely that this cursed planet had taken another sister from her.
She wasn't even sure what she was doing. Did she want to know Yellow's final moments? Did she want to rain cannon-fire on the planet from her ship. Did she want to confront this Flawed Grey, to shatter her herself or maybe go and… and… not return? Did she want to do this, not just this this but any of this without them. Maybe Yellow had been right. Nothing good would ever come from earth.
Blue frowned and raised a hand to her chest as she felt something brush her Gem causing her to shiver. That was strange. It had almost felt like passing too close to a Gem-Light Converter. Excess energy would cling to surfaces creating something near to static.
Blue closed her eyes and focused on her Gem. An understanding of one's own Gem was fundamental to their species and she had thousands of years of experience in feeling out herself. Light moved through it, through her. She was light. She was Starlight. Light was everything and all was Light and so she was all of everything. She was light. She was Starlight. Light wa- no, there was something off. There was an energy sticking to her Gem that was not light. Blue opened her eyes.
"Pearl, new destination. I must speak with White."
"Y-Yes, my Diamond." Blue Pearl stuttered.
Blue watched as Pearl brought up navigation… and then closed it without altering course. She felt the energy move through the ship as more power was added to the sublight engines.
"Pearl. I said we had a new destination." Blue said.
"Of course, my Diamond." Pearl responded yet took no action.
Blue frowned. What was going on? She activated her throne interface.
[ACCESS DENIED]
Blue blinked. She was a Diamond. There was no such thing as her being denied. She repeatedly tried to circumvent whatever error was keeping her out of the system.
"It's no use." Pearl said without turning from her station. "You're locked out completely."
Blue turned angry eyes on her servant.
"Who are you? You are not my Pearl."
The Pearl turned around to face her, the movement brushing the hair from Blue Pearls face revealing softly glowing green eyes.
"No, I'm not." The Pearl said. "Goodbye, Blue Diamond."
Blue Diamonds didn't know what to make of the thing that was her Pearl simply turning transparent and gliding through the floor of the ship.
Blue sighed as the forward display activated showing not the void of space or the blue and green of a cursed planet, but a dull and constant red of another quickly approaching planet.
Blue closed her eyes. She was light. She was Starlight. She was… so tired.
Alex floated in the void of space and watched as the giant blue ship in the shape of a hand and forearm rammed into Mars. As he waited as the resultant fireball the size of New York (the state not the city) spread and eventually dissipated in the thin Mars atmosphere he bubbled the Blue Pearl in his hand and sent it back to the Temple. He reached out to the touch of ecto-energy he had brushed against Blue Diamond's Gem and started making his way towards it, it was going to be a long day.
⦖⋄⦕
"So let me get this right." Lyn said from the where she was cuddling Morrigan in the hot spring. "You opened a portal to Blue's ship using the video feed from a Spectre as a reference then while invisible you touched Blue's Gem with a tracer of Ecto-Energy and overshadowed her Pearl who you used to plot an impact trajectory into Mars and lock everyone out of the system."
Alex nodded as Lapis washed his hair. Her control over water made it the best scalp massage he had ever known. "That sounds about right. The hardest part was finding her Diamond at the impact zone. There really wasn't much of a ship left."
"I'm surprised there was a Gem to find at all." Lyn said.
"It was a little cracked but intact."
"Is there a reason you haven't shattered any of the Diamonds?" Lapis asked.
"I was thinking of handing them over to the Tuatha De. They can either put them on trial or shatter them or reset them."
"Why bother?" Lyn asked.
Alex shrugged. "Diamonds, maybe not these ones specifically, but Diamonds are needed to heal corruption. I'll let others make the decision on how that happens just as long as it happens after we're gone."
"So, all that's left is White Diamond." Morrigan stated.
"That's right." Alex agreed. "How soon will your people be ready?"
Morrigan stretched wrapped her arms around Lyn. "They can be in position within an hour of getting the go ahead."
"Good, then tomorrow we go after White."
A few moments of comfortable silence passed as they relaxed in the hot waters.
"Just one question." Lyn started.
"Hmm?" Alex hummed.
"Why Mars?"
"It required the least deviation of the ship's route." Alex responded.
"Shame." Lyn grinned. "It would have been funnier if you fisted Uranus."
Alex could only groan while Lapis tilted her head in confusion.
Morrigan covered her mouth to hide her giggles.
"I don't understand the joke." Lapis admitted.
"Lyn, no." Alex reprimanded his sister as she went to explain it to the blue Gem.
"Lyn, YES!" Lyn grinned chaotically. "So, Lapis, fisting is when…"
Alex groaned and tried to ignore his immature yet lovable little sister.
⦖⋄⦕
Bismuth was very happy. She had been released from the bubble Rose had trapped her in only a week ago. She had been ecstatic to see the other Crystal Gems and she liked Steven, the boy who replaced Rose. She did feel like something wasn't being said when Steven had glared at the other Gems and told her that he was the son of Rose Quartz but in the end it didn't matter.
They had all had a frank discussion about Rose bubbling her. It turned out that even the other Gems couldn't stomach the necessities needed to free their sister Gems. It might have turned into something ugly except Steven had simply given her a data-crystal and said that there were others who felt more like her.
Bismuth had followed the directions on the crystal and gotten into contact with a Quartz named Morrigan. They had discussed goals and strategies for hours and then she had been introduced to something new, something amazing, something GLORIOUS!
A whole colony outside of the Diamonds' control. A colony that was happy to get a real rebellion started and was willing to help. Bismuth was with her people! They had an army, they had weapons, they had spirit! She had even met the Diamond that was producing so many of their weapons and found that she didn't hate the little thing. Alexa didn't seem to want to command anyone. She simply handed off a batch of tractor-beam wands, a hundred new disruptor swords and a stealth spaceship that was beyond anything Bismuth had ever seen before and had then walked away. A Diamond that didn't want to lord it over others? HA! Now she had seen everything.
But none of that came close to why she was so happy today. She smiled broadly at the thousand warriors that were lined up in the courtyard with her. Today they were taking the fight to Homeworld. She patted the Breaking Point attached to one of her arms. She knew that if the plan went off without a hitch, then there was little chance it would see any use but still; better to have it and not need it an all that.
⦖⋄⦕
Alex stood next to Morrigan as they looked over the invasion force. One thousand Gems, all of different type and caste, each one armed with a disruptor sword, a tractor wand, a light-pistol and a P-comm in addition to whatever personal gem weapon they wielded.
"We're good to go." Morrigan said when she got confirmation from Zona.
Alexa nodded and commanded the ghost-skeletons to activate the warp pad causing the skeletons and the crystalline statue to disappear in a beam of light.
"We wait ten minutes and then follow." Alex said as he watched the holographic display of Whites throne room.
⦖⋄⦕
One hundred and Sixty-three light-years away in an empty dance hall near White's palace a warp pad activated. Four skeleton-ghosts lifted a crystal statue of a winged woman off the pad and onto the dance floor. One by one, following orders from their master, they removed the red gem from their eye and placed it in recessed grooves within the statue's base. Each gem glowed, liquified and seeped into the statue to gather at the glowing red Gem pulsing at its centre.
The pulsing of the now significantly larger gem in the statue increased in frequency until it was striating in a blur so fast as to appear as constant glow of light that increased in intensity. An oppressive feeling grew around the statue. Flickers of energy played along the surfaces of the room in a slow dance of white static electricity. Gems in nearby buildings staggered as something in the air made them feel faint.
In White's palace, a Diamond frowned with the face of a damaged pearl.
The statue exploded with red-white light that swept outward in a wave of energy. Outward and onward in a circle of light that rushed through the city and beyond, covering the entirety of the fractured planet. Where the light went Gem's poofed. Their Gems falling to the ground in a cascade of tinkling stone.
In White's palace a pearl fell to the floor and a large white diamond clattered to a now empty throne.
⦖⋄⦕