Chapter 2: The Eclipse of The Heart


The water Gem soon finds herself onto the tower placed on-top of the beach house. She looked in the distance towards Little Homeworld, sprouting her water wings and flew towards her home away from home.

The blue Gem flew above the small Gem town and down at her extended Gem family of all colors, shapes, and sizes. She sighed in contentment at the work they had accomplished together. Her smile widened at catching two of her friends in the corner of her eyes. "Bismuth! Peridot!" she called out cheerfully, descending a bit as the blacksmith operated a crane with the green Gem floating by on a trash lid using her ferrokinesis.

"Hey! What about us!?" called out another Gem. Lapis turned to find Amethyst and Jasper standing on-top of the warp-pad which Bismuth was lifting with the crane.

"Oh, sorry guys." the blue Gem sheepishly smiled while rubbing the back of her head. Suddenly the warp-pad activated revealing Steven, the half-Gem started to walk forward and nearly fell off if not for the purple Gem using her whip to pull him back. "Whoa! Careful dude!" she said before the both of them did a little handshake.

"Heh. For being the kid's so called guardian water angel, you're really terrible at your job, Lazuli." Jasper slyly smirked with her arms crossed. The blue Gem mock glared at the Quartz soldier, placed her hands on her hips then blew a raspberry at her.

"Come on, you two. I'm older than I was and I've gotten a lot better with my powers. I think I can basically take care of myself now." Steven told them with a small smile.

The Quartz soldier chuckled before slapping Steven on the back having him briefly loose his balance, "Relax Steven, we're just fooling around." she said with Lapis chuckling herself as she shook her head. "So, how's Little Homeworld been holding up?" the blue Gem asked Bismuth.

"So far, so good. We're about to install the new warp." Bismuth said, giving her a thumbs up and a wink.

"Though things would go alot faster if these two weren't standing on it." Peridot said snarkily, referring to the Quartz sisters.

"Hey! You calling us fat, Peri!?" Amethyst slightly glared at her. "I'm not that heavy. Or, are you saying Bismuth's little machine can't handle just a few more pounds?" Jasper smirked, challenging the blacksmith.

"Oh, we'll see about that Quartz!" Bismuth glared and smirked at her.

"Uggh!" Peridot groaned. "Little Homeworld is 83.7% complete, but we're never gonna get anywhere now!" she said.

"Only 83.7%?! We'd better get cracking!" Lapis with playful shock then smiled before sprouting her wings and flew off to help her fellow Gems.


Transition

The half-Gem and the Crystal Gems now laid on the hill with the lighthouse nearby. The group basked in the warmth of the sun as the light shined on them along with the wind softly blowing on them.

"I want everything to stay exactly like this, and never change." Steven told the group and himself.

"Here, here/Agreed" both Pearl and Amethyst replied.

"How's the future look, Garnet? Do we all stay just like this, forever?" the half-Gem asked Garnet.

The fusion smiled before adjusting her shades. However, her expression turned from hopeful to fear. "No!..." she gasped then sat up with the others widening their eyes in shock.

Suddenly, the clouds above them became dark and swirled around. The Gems and Steven watched as a strange object pierced the skies, a glowing dark pink liquid bubbling within.

The group stared with wide eyes as a strange figure revealed herself from the top of the contraption. "Hey! Are you Steven Universe!?" the figure called down.

"Um. Yes?..." Steven responded, unsurely.

"Perfect." the stranger smiled widely with ill-intent. She then shape-shifted her arm, twisted itself to resemble a large horn before she blew on it, with it the hatch of the strange object opened up to reveal it's sharp point with mechanical legs folding out from the sides.

"Move!" Garnet cries out, quickly grabbing the purple Gem in her arms. She and the others moved out of the way as the sharp point descended into the ground.

"Hey. Nice park job, dingus." the short purple Gem yelled to the stranger.

The object soon then began to drill deeper within the ground with the dark pink liquid gurgling as it entered the earth.

The stranger then jumped down from the top, revealing herself further. Her outfit and body consisted of pink, mostly of the darker shade. Her hair seemed to be spikey and in the form of pigtails. Her gem, which was placed on the center of her chest, had the form of an upside-down heart. Three black lines formed below her eyes and moved down her face, resembling running mascara.

The dark-pink Gem snarled as her magenta eyes stared at the group with hate before a little smile formed on her face. "Well well well well, well. Lemme get a look at the menagerie." she said, shape-shifting her arm and eye into a telescope and peered down at the group.

"You must be Amethyst. You must be Garnet." she said, looking at the small Quartz and fusion. Her eye then landed on the renegade Pearl. "And Pink Diamond's Pearl." her body twitched at the mere sight of her. "Wow." she said to herself with her eye and arm forming back. "She took you with her. Isn't that just...swell" she said through gritted teeth.

"It can't be..." the pale Gem said as she stared at the dark-pink Gem in disbelief yet sadness.

"Oh, but it can be, and it is." the dark-pink Gem chuckled as she struck a pose. "I got a new style..." she said, running her gloved hand through her hair. "...and a few new toys." she said, jabbing her palm onto the glass of the strange object. "...that are gonna put an end to your happily eva' after...once and for all!" she yelled, with what seemed to be a Brooklyn accent slipping out.

"Whoa, whoa." the half-Gem nervously walked up to her. "This has gotta be a misunderstanding. In case you haven't heard, I've established peace across the..." he began to say, really not wanting another conflict to start after he and the others went through so much to get here.

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I heard..." the dark-pink Gem rolled her eyed as her noodle arms hanged lazily in front of her. "I've had your little message to the universe...on loop!" she yelled, stretching her leg which kicked him in the face.


Meanwhile: Little Homeworld

The group of Homeworld Gems, which consisted of Lapis, Jasper, Bismuth, and Peridot stood on-top of one of Little Homeworld's towers.

"Oh, my stars!" Peridot cried out in alarm. The green Gem stared through her pair of binoculars.

"What? What's going on?" Lapis said with worry while the two larger Gems tried staring in the distance.

"See for yourself..." Peridot said, handing her the binoculars.

The blue Gem peered through the human invention and her eyes widened underneath. "Wait. Wait a second..." she said in disbelief. She then pulled her eyes off of the binoculars showing her eyes and face in shock. "I-Is that!?..." she said to herself.


Back with the Crystal Gems

The dark-pink Gem was about to burst into song. However, until she heard something in the distance.

"Spinel!" the voice cried out.

The dark-pink Gem, now known as Spinel, raised an eyebrow. "Huh?" she questioned who called to her and once more morphed her arm and eye into a telescope. Soon enough, her eye landed on Little Homeworld and the group of Gems staring in her direction, especially of the blue Gem.

The dark-pink Gem let out an exaggerated gasp as her eye bugged out. "Oh! Oh!" she said excitedly then smiled widely as she morphed her eye and arm back before waving happily at the blue Gem. "Hey, Lapis! What are you doing here!?" she called out, oblivious to the look of annoyance etched on the blue Gem's face.

"I live here!" Lapis cried out, her hand clenched into a fist.

"What!? You're gonna have to speak up!" Spinel called out, placing a gloved hand where her ear would be.

"Why won't you leave me alone!?" Lapis shook her fist at her.

Spinel, who thought the blue Gem was waving at her, waved back. "I missed you too!" she smiled cutely.

"What!?" Lapis yelled in confusion.

"Whaaaatttt!?" Spinel yelled back with equal confusion. She then shook her head, deciding to get back on track, back to glaring down at the group below her. Suddenly, she heard the loud boom of the sound barrier breaking, widening her eyes as she felt a presence land behind her.

The dark-pink Gem spun around with wide eyes which landed on a glaring water Gem. "Wowie, you've gotten a lot faster since the last time we hung out!" Spinel said.

"Stop acting like you don't care!" Lapis cried out, her fists trembling. The dark-pink Gem reeled back with a hurt and confused look.

Before either could get another word another presence made itself known to them. The skies above split apart as an enormous vessel, dwarfing the injector, hummed as it lowered itself while yet hovering above the group.

The strange vessel consisted of black metallic parts, some which ended in jagged spikes sprouting out of the ship. Black metal-like tendrils hanged from the center of the ship, almost giving it the appearance of a squid.

The center of the strange spacecraft opened up, before the group cried out from the eerie and loud sound resembling that of a trumpet blew out from it, trying to block the sound to no avail until it abruptly came to a halt.

"Is this another one of your toys?" Lapis asked, dreading the answer.

"Nuh-uh..." Spinel replied, her body trembling from the cold atmosphere that hung around them.

Soon enough, the dark figure residing within, jumped down and landed between Lapis and Spinel on all fours before slowly standing, her one visible eye snapping open and eyed both Gems.

"Hmm..." she hummed in thought as her eye stared at the blue Gem. She then shifted her eye back to Spinel, "Nice to finally meet the jester..." she said, a small frown formed on her face.

"Uh, and who are you?" Spinel asked, irritated as this new Gem interrupted her game.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the dark Gem scoffs, rolling her eye.

"...Yes, that's why I asked?" Spinel said, nodding cutely with a tilt of her head.

The Gem ignored Spinel and walked to the edge and stared down at the group of Gems below. "Brace yourselves, everybody." she smirked before six black tendrils sprouted from her back which then constricted around Lapis and Spinel.

Both Gems cried out as they were lifted up into the air, being flailed around with Spinel's noodle arms stretching around from the velocity, then thrown to the ground nearby the group, piling up dirt as they came skidding across the ground. Most of the group hurried towards the fallen blue Gem with Pearl hesitantly crouching near Spinel with the cherry Gem glaring at her but with a moment of conflict shimmering in her eyes.

The eldritch Gem cackled as she lands in front of the group with her teeth morphing into shark-like fangs as her right hand morphed with her fingers turning into talons along with her index finger into an elongated black claw . "...Cause you ain't seen nothing yet!" she smirks before roaring as she rushes at the group.'