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Act 3
Chapter Five: So Much More
It's been a few days since the disastrous mission occurred at the communication hub. Since it happened, things between the Crystal Gems have been strained between himself and the others. The white Gem's actions had hit Pearl and his relationship hard. It's hard not to feel hurt when the woman you love exploits the situation to get more fusion time out of him. While Isaac disapproved of Pearl's action, he didn't outright ignore her and give her the cold shoulder. Something that Garnet was doing. Negatively affecting the team.
Hence why, to relieve the mental stress, he went to the Big Donut to hang out with his friends, including a plus one.
"Really?! Pearl did that?" Connie asked Isaac, looking shocked and appalled.
A few minutes ago, she came over to the Temple to get some training time with Isaac and Pearl. He'd told her that training was canceled and invited her to join him and his human friends for coffee. Even though they didn't fully understand what he was going through, the 'Cool Kids' were just as shocked as the young girl when Isaac told them what happened.
"Yeah. She kept rebuilding the tower so that she had an excuse for us to fuse," Isaac said, taking a sip of his soda. He and the others were sitting around the table with snacks and drinks.
"That's messed up," Sadie said as she sat next to Lars and Kiki. "Wait…what's fusing?"
"It's when the Gems merge and become one person," Connie told the barista, knowing only what Steven told her about the subject. Fearing the worst, the Indian girl looked to Isaac with a concerned expression. "Does…that mean that you broke up?"
"No, but things are just…awkward between the two of us. We haven't really had a chance to talk about it," Isaac said, the main reason being that Pearl's been avoiding him. Anytime they were in the same room together, she would immediately close up and quickly leave the room. "But that's not really the worst part of it all."
"What do you mean?" asked Sour Cream with a raised eyebrow. "Your girlfriend tricked you into…fusing, right?"
"Well, yeah, but it's Garnet that's been getting on my fucking nerves," Isaac said bitterly. "She's been acting like it happened to her and has been taking all this personally. I'm trying to mend things with Pearl, but Garnet's been making it difficult."
"So, she took it upon herself to be angry for you?" Jenny summarized the core issue.
"Pretty much," Isaac said, leaning back in his chair. What made it worse was that her being upset had driven Pearl away from Isaac. Preventing him from really talking to her. "She thinks that because she's a fusion, she has some kind of authority in the matter. I've tried talking to her about it, but she just walks away. It's like saying that she knows better than me."
"That sounds rough, man," Buck said.
"You don't even know the half of it," Isaac said. "I mean, I love Pearl, and I'd do anything for her. But I don't understand why she didn't just ask to fuse with me instead of tricking everyone. And then there's Garnet being the only one that can dictate who can fuse and who can't."
"Well, I don't know what to tell you, Issac," Connie said. "It sounds like fusing is more personal to her than to you. Maybe she saw what Pearl was doing as something wrong?"
"Yeah, isn't the tall lady a 'fusion' like all the time," Sour Cream asked.
"I guess. But it's more about how she reacted. It felt like Pearl had just desecrated the Ark of the Covenant," Isaac said.
"Sounds a lot like how my stepdad reacted when I accidentally broke his fishing line," said the musician. "He was mad as hell. But we sort of patched things up. Sometimes people do stuff that others take more personally."
Isaac sighed and rubbed his face. That's when Lars spoke up and said, "Yeah, as much as I want to hear all about your relationship issues, I'd rather work than listen to this." And with that, he got up and walked away, with the others glaring at him.
"How do you deal with that loser," Isaac asked Sadie.
Sadie said, "Whiskey," she then got up and walked into the back.
"Sounds to me like you need to just get away from it all, Isaac," Buck said in his somewhat wise voice.
Isaac leaned back in and said, "Ah no, I'm not running away again. Not after the last time." He was referring to the time he, Steven, and Amethyst got on a train and ended up in the Kindergarten. The last thing he needed was to go on another adventure like that and find out more horrible things about Homeworld's empire.
"No, I mean like just a vacation. A simple getaway to clear your mind," he clarified for the demi-Gem.
This was certainly appealing to Isaac. With Steven and Garnet gone, having left to help out Greg with getting a piece of equipment for the carwash, Isaac was just trapped at the house with nothing to do but be bitter. "You guys got any place in mind?"
Jenny was about to suggest a popular nightclub where they could take the young man when Isaac's phone suddenly sounded a strange beating. Confused, yet finding the notification to be familiar, Isaac pulled out his phone and was shocked to discover a notification unlike any he'd seen. It said CAMERA ACTIVATED on it.
"What the…" Isaac taped on the notification, and a video played on a loop. It showed a warp pad being activated. The familiar column of light shined from the crystal pad, before an all too family Gem appeared on it. "Peridot!"
"Wait, what? Let me see!" Jenny grabbed his phone and placed it on the table. The others watched as they saw Peridot warping down on the warp pad and walking off. The video repeated as the others commented. "That's the Gem you've been trying to catch?"
"What's with that hair," asked Sour Cream.
Buck commented, "Wouldn't mind some of her hair gel."
Connie turned her head to the new Gem of War. "Hey, Isaac, how did—huh?"
She was shocked to see that Isaac had left them with his phone. However, through the glass windows of the donut shop, they also saw their friend running back onto the beach and around the cliff. Heading for the Temple in a hurry. They didn't know how he got the footage, but with everything that he'd told them about Peridot and the events of the last few weeks to capture her, the Cool Kids and Connie knew that this could only mean one thing: Isaac was going to try and capture the green Gem himself.
"Okay, so, just so we're clear, we're not letting him do this alone, right," Jenny asked the others.
"No way," Sour Cream said.
"All for one and one for all," Buck said, nodding.
Connie grabbed the phone. "And we need to give him his phone back."
—
Sitting on the couch of the beach house, Isaac immediately reopened the correct program, knowing exactly where the video came from. A few months ago, when Steven started to see the warp pads being used by Peridot's robonoids, Isaac placed motion sensor cameras in specific locations to capture the moment of anything that would try to use the warp pads.
He'd taken a few down, but now, by a stroke of pure luck, one of the ones he didn't take down gave him the location of Peridot. Determined to get her, Isaac pulled out a map of the world and unrolled it on the table. With Steven and Garnet gone with Greg to help out the boy's father, Amethyst at her old friend Vedalia's house, and Pearl avoiding him. However, Isaac didn't want to disturb her, as hunting their enemy might not be the best thing for her. Meeting Isaac would have to find a way to take down Peridot himself.
On the map, there were dots and Xs. The dots were the places Isaac had a camera set up, and the Xs represented the ones he'd taken down. Looking at the photo taken by the camera on his laptop, he saw tall trees and what appeared to be a metallic object in the frame. If he remembered correctly, there was only one location that had something like that, South America's warp pad.
"Right, I'm coming for you, you little green space rock bitch!" Isaac yelled, standing up. "I'm going to end this chase one and for all."
Going up to the upper level and grabbing his taco backpack, the blonde demigem began to stuff it with the equipment needed for the mission. However, just as he was finished, swung his backpack on, and about to go to the warp pad, the door opened behind him.
"Amethyst, get your game-face on," he said, believing that the purple Gem had come home. "I know where Peridot is."
"And we're gonna help you find her." Isaac's eyes widened and he turned around, only to be shocked even more than before. Standing there, with their own backpacks, was his human friends Connie, Buck, Sour Cream, and Jenny.
"Wait, what are you guys doing?" Isaac asked, walking up to the others.
"What does it look like, white boy? We're going with you!" Jenny said with a grin.
It took only a blink of his eyes to come to his reaction. "No. No, no, no, no, no," Isaac said, waving his hands. "You are not going on this mission."
"Come on, Isaac. Please," Connie pleaded with the Gem of War.
"Connie, this is Peridot we're talking about," Isaac told her. "A Gem of Homeworld, and a dangerous enemy."
"Really? Because from what you told us about her, she doesn't seem all that tough," Jenny said with a raised eyebrow.
Isaac tried to come up with a counterpoint, yet she was right. Peridot's best attack was a blast of her arm cannon thing. But that did little to harm Isaac. And most of the time, the green Gem would be trying to run away. "Yeah…well…"
"Just give it a chance, Isaac," Connie said with an enthusiastic smile. "We can be like the second Crystal Gems. I'll be Steven on this mission. Buck can be Garnet."
The sunglasses-wearing teenager smirked and commented, "Rad."
"Jenny can be Amethyst," Connie said, gesturing to the older girl with her.
"Heck yeah I can be," Jenny said, crossing her arms.
"And Sour Cream can be Pearl."
Well, that certainly brought them a sense of awkwardness, as Isaac and Sour Cream looked at one another. "This is just as awkward for me as it is to you," the taller teenager said.
"And you guys are sure about this, right?" Isaac gave the Cool Kids a concerned expression. If it were only him and Connie going, it wouldn't have raised any alarm or concerns for the young man. Thanks to her training, Connie was a good fighter. The others, on the other hand, were civilians. They haven't been in a fight like he had.
"It's what are friends for, man?" Sour Cream said. "It'll be easier for you to have a good team, one that's not…well."
"He's right, Isaac," said Jenny as she walked up to her friend and placed her hands on his shoulder. "You trust the Gems because they're your family and look at what happened. They fell apart. But you're still half human. Why not give us that same trust."
For a moment Isaac thought about what the young black woman had said to him. It was true, he couldn't call upon the Gems for this mission, not when there was still a lot of tension between the members of the team. And as Sour Cream said, Peridot needed to be captured with the aid of a team that knew each other and worked well with each other.
"Alright," he said with a heavy sigh. "But we'll need to get you guys some weapons."
—
Those weapons came in the form of Isaac, with the help of a certain lion, going to the secret armory. As the others waited for him to get back, with Connie sitting at the table and dutifully watching the computer for any moment on screen, the door opened and they turned their heads to see their demigem friend. His arms held three weapons for the Cool Kids, which he dropped in the middle of the table.
Jenny's eyes immediately landed on the scimitar and picked up the weapon. "This is mine, y'all," she bosted, pulling it out of the sheath.
Sour Cream was the next one up and picked up a Viking ax from the Axes of Ages. "Guys, I should totally do a Nordic mix," he said, looking at his weapon.
The last weapon, a gladius, found itself in the hands of Buck. "Nice. Saw this in a movie," he said with a cool smile.
However, with all of the weapons having been taken, Connie was left with nothing to pick. Worried that she might get left behind, the young Indian girl turned around and was about to protest, only to see Isaac walking up to her with a weapon she wasn't expecting to see again.
"You're gonna need this," Isaac said, handing her Rose's saber.
Connie looked at the weapon with stars in her eyes. "You…You're letting me use it?"
"I'm letting you borrow it. Just for today, and if you can prove to be responsible with it, I'll let you use it for other missions."
Beyond excited, Connie took the saber from him and strapped it to her back. "You can count on me, Mr. Infinite!" she said, giving Isaac a salute.
The young man chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Isaac is still good," he said, remembering how she used to be when they first met. The Indian girl has come a long way from the sigh girl who didn't have any friends. Now she was becoming a confident young woman who could handle anything Steven's crazy life threw at her.
"Alright, let's go!" Isaac clapped his hands, heading for the warp pad with Connie following behind him. Together, they stepped on the pad, before being joined by Jenny, Buck, and Sour Cream. "Alright, folks, keep your arms and feet inside the beam at all times."
The kids laughed it off, thinking that he was just playing with them, and not warning them about the dangers of warp travel.
"Seriously, don't do anything stupid," Isaac said, not wanting to have to find a way to pull their corpses back in the warp stream if they do get out. Nevertheless, he activated the warp, and the group was consumed by weightlessness and the warp's light that enveloped all of them.
"Whoo!" Jenny cheered with a big smile as she and the others floated around in the stream "This is what I'm talking about! You and Steven really do this all the time?"
"Yeah," Isaac said, smiling. He and Connie stayed where they were, while the Cool Kids floated around without any sense of direction. Just like the first time he and Steven warped.
"What're you waiting for, man," Buck said. "This feels like freedom."
"Yeah, I wouldn't do that because…" Isaac was cut off when they arrived at their destination. While he and Connie remained on their feet, the Cool Kids fell down and landed hard. Causing them pain as they groaned and rubbed themselves.
Stepping off the pad, Isaac looked around. The warp link had sent the group to where Peridot had supposedly arrived, likely just a few minutes prior. A dense forest covered the area, likely bordering a jungle, but what lay just a few feet away was far more interesting than the tropical foliage.
Laying on its side in front of the humans was a flying saucer used for interplanetary Gem travel. Homeworld Gems used these ships to travel across the cosmos before the warp pads were built on Earth. In terms of size and scope, it was massive. Considering the state of the vessel, it had clearly been there for quite some time. Moss had taken over most of its lopsided form, as its three legs were set askew entirely.
In spite of its dilapidation, the kids, and even Isaac to some extent, were all amazed by the historic ship before them. Even though, for Isaac, this sight brought back a lot of bad memories of his past life. Flashing memories of that gave him a headache of thousands of these ships.
"You okay?" Connie said.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Isaac said, snapping back to reality. "We've got a job to do."
"Wait, hold on!" Jenny grabbed him and Connie and pulled them together with her with her friends, she then snapped a group selfie. "Oh, that's going on Instagram."
"Guys, focus," Isaac said.
Jenny laughed. "Come on, Isaac. It's an alien motherfucking ship! We're probably the first humans…"
Isaac gave her a raised eyebrow.
"Er, the first humans and the first hybrid to ever lay eyes on this beast," she said, gesturing to the hulking mass of the ship. "Don't you know what that means?"
"Nothing good."
Isaac and the group walked into the ship through the triangular door. The interior of the derelict ship was dark and musty, yet oddly enough, full of life. In the thousands of years since its crash landing, the interior had become a garden. Clinging vines crept across the metallic walls, large patches of thick moss dotted the floor, and browning rust had taken its toll on the once pristine vessel.
"It's more like a greenhouse than a spaceship," Connie commented, amazed as she and the others looked over the ship's weathered entry deck.
"Looks like Earth won this battle," Buck agreed.
The only access that goes deeper into the ship was a small crevice in the nearby wall. Isaac stood by it, as his team hutched through the opening. Once the last one, Connie, was through, he fitted himself in. On the other side, he came out to a long, straight corridor. As soon as it was apparent that they were still safe, the young man led the way.
As she walked beside Isaac, Connie's phone buzzed in her pocket. Pulling it out, she frowned when she saw the text.
Mom: Connie, it's your week with me and you were supposed to be here 1 minute ago. Where are you?
Connie typed out, "Mom, I'm fine. I'm hanging out with Isaac."
Her mom responded instantly in a series of texts.
Mom: Isaac?
Mom: Who is that?
Mom: Is that the other boy your father and I should have met?
Mom: You know I don't like you hanging out with people I don't know about.
Mom: I have another operation.
Mom: We WILL talk about this.
Isaac knew that Connie was frustrated before she let out an angered groan. "That's your mom?"
"Yeah. It's my week with her, so she expected me to be home at a certain time," Connie said to her friend.
The "It's my week with her" part of her comment gave Isaac a moment of pause as he registered what it meant. "Wait, your parents are separated," he said.
"Yeah," Connie said, rubbing her arms in discomfort. "It's why I moved around a lot, especially with dad's job taking him around the state."
"That's rough," Buck said.
"It's not all that bad," Connie said. "I get to see different places. Dad explained it as if…well, they just fell out of love and wanted to focus on their careers. But they're still good friends. Though, honestly, and don't tell mom this, I kind of prefer Dad. He's not…well…"
Sour Cream weighed in. "Sounds like you've got your own fish case."
The young girl looked at him in confusion. "'Fish case'?"
"Uh oh, here we go," Jenny said, rolling her eyes.
"It's this whole thing with my stepdad," Sour Cream began with an exasperated frown. "I just don't get what's wrong with wantin' to be a deejay. But my step-dad was all on my case today saying 'Ma-ma! Ma-ma-ma-ma!' Eugh. I'm just like, I don't want to be a fisherman. Everyone knows you can't rave in a raincoat, step-dad!"
"Have you tried?" Isaac said.
"Yeah! It sucked!"
"At least he only bugs you about one thing," Buck said. "My dad's gotta say something about everything I do, 'cause I'm the mayor's son. And I'm like, you can't tell me what to do, I'm the mayor's...wait."
"Puh-lease," Jenny cut in with a challenging chuckle, "you're walking in cake with that talk. You guys don't even know what bad is until you have a sister. Look, I don't know why I have to spell it out that I'm the evil twin and she's the good one! Don't ask me to help you with your homework, I'm at some metal concert."
She then caught up with Connie and the group came to a stop.
"Your turn, little sister," Jenny said. "Let's hear your troubles with your family."
Connie was hesitant at first, and she didn't know why. It wasn't like her mom was around to hear her or berate her about talking about her in such a way. She was finally able to vent all of her frustrations.
"If there was the personification of a control freak, it's my mom," Connie said.
"Let it out, Connie," Buck said.
"I don't get why she can't trust me!" Connie yelled as she paced around. "I mean, I know she's my mom, but if I stray from my usual norms, she will have a fit! If I get anything less than an A+, it's an automatic no TV for a week until I get my grade up. She's just so overbearing! It's why I didn't want to tell her about the Crystal Gems and all my magical adventures with Isaac and Steven. There's some things I'm still not telling her because I know that once she hears them, she'll never let me go near Beach city again."
Isaac placed a hand on her shoulder. "Family stuff is tricky," he said, with the cool kids nodding in agreement. "I honestly never had problems growing up with day, with the exception of the arguments here and there."
"Boo!" Jenny gave him a thumbs down. "Come on, Isaac! Give us a real family drama. Like for instance, let's dive deeper into what's going on with the Crystal Gems, because you've been acting weird, way before this stuff with you and Pearl."
Isaac hesitated for a moment. "Well…as it turned out, the Gems have been lying to me about…a lot of things."
"That's the worst," Buck said sympathetically.
"Dude, that sucks," Jenny added just as sincerely.
"What a bummer," Sour Cream finished with a pitied frown.
"When I came to Beach City, I was under the impression that mom was this great warrior who fought for earth," Isaac continued. "Turns out only half of that stuff is true. Turns out the Gems were an insurrectionist group that rebelled against Homeworld, the birthplace of all Gems.
"My mom, as it turned out, was a general of Homeworld. Meaning she was on the side of destroying the planet. She fought to destroy the rebellion and nearly succeeded, and from what Garnet told me, she was the only one Steven's mom feared.
"That was until the Diamonds betrayed her and then she fought for earth. Now, Homeworld is back and they think I'm my mom. And maybe I kinda am? Or the very least I am a reincarnation of her. Because all I've been seeing are these visions, memories of her past. My past. I don't know, man. I don't know what I am anymore. I think…I think I am Onyx, my mom, after hitting the reset button."
In the wake of the human Gem detailing his apparent existential crisis, a deep, stunned silence had fallen over the corridor. While Connie looked to Isaac with genuine concern over what he had just admitted, none of the teens knew what to make of it at all Unsure of how to even approach something so deep and complex.
When the ongoing bout of awkward quiet was finally broken, Jenny was the one to do it. "That's heavy."
"Yeah," Isaac sighed and continued walking. The others follow behind.
"Man, and I thought all of us had baggage," Buck commented sympathetically. "But that's nothing compared to what you're going through. So, if you're your mom…how do you do it?"
"Do what?" Isaac looked at him.
"Battle. Saving the world. Having to fight wars again and again. How do you go through that?"
Isaac thought about his answer. How would Onyx respond? "It's all I know," he said.
"Bruh, I'd turn to fishing in a heartbeat if it meant not dealing with that," Sour Cream said.
"Then let's end this war before it has a chance to start," Isaac said, talking off down the collider.
—
The ship's central control bridge echoed the low grumblings and frustrated rantings of the green Gem. Desperate for anything to work, Peridot frantically pressed various buttons in an attempt to make anything on the ship work. Of course, given the age of the vessel and its current decayed condition, she wasn't really having much luck and none of her inputs on the panel seemed to be doing anything to bring some much as the air conditioning back online.
"Ugh… stupid button here, I don't know where anything is!" Peridot growled, slamming her fist down onto the aged panel angrily. "Blast this old Gem tech! Why isn't anything working?!"
The green Gem suddenly cut off with an aptly startled gasp as the wall right behind her was blasted cleanly through, courtesy of Isaac's superhuman strength blaster. The demi-Gem, Connie, and the Cool Kids glared at her with their weapons drawn.
"Knock, knock," Isaac said.
Connie pointed Rose's sword at the green Gem. "You're going down to bubble town, evil doer!"
"Earth forever!" Buck exclaimed, holding his short sword over his head.
Under normal circumstances, Peridot would have been terrified. She would have been frustrated by the Crystal Gems finding her location. Escape would have been her primary instinct. And yet, the green Gem didn't instead, her nasally voice started laughing like a mad woman. It made Isaac and the other rather uncomfortable.
"You really think you've got the upper hand? You, without your Crystal Gems and only a few humans? You've landed right into our perfect trap!" Peridot monologues. "COME ON OUT!"
Isaac and the others braced themselves for what they thought would be an attack from one or more assailants.
And yet, nothing happened.
They were confused by the lack of an attack and Peridot was as well. "Uh, it's time to spring the trap," she said, getting no response. "Aren't you going to do your thing?"
Whatever Peridot was expecting to come out wasn't going to come out, and she knew it. With wide eyes and a nervous expression, she could only mutter one phrase.
"Oh clods."
Isaac's gemstone glowed as he summoned his katana. "Get her!" he yelled, charging at the green Gem. "Don't let her take off!"
"Kyaah!" Peridot yelped before shooting three energy blasts in quick succession at the human. However, they all were able to get out of there just in the nick of time.
"Here comes the ax!" Sour Cream yelled, hurling his viking ax.
Peridot screamed and jumped to the side, only for the ax to chop into the central control.
"No!" Peridot gasped in a mixture of anger and despair. "I could have fixed that and left this doomed rock!"
"The only doomed one is you!" Jenny yelled as she and Buck rushed at the green Gem.
However, as the black girl swung at her head, Peridot ducked under the blade. Then when Buck tried stabbing her, she twirled to the right, letting him stumble past her. She charged another blast of her finger cannon and pointed it at Buck.
Instead of firing at him, she pointed the cannon up and fired. Blasting a hole in the ceiling. "You think you've won?" Peridot began monologuing again while trying to fly away with her helicopter fingers. "When I get my hands on the Steven, I'm gonna force him to use his healing powers to fix the warp pad and leave you all to die!"
"You're not gonna lay a finger on him!" Isaac yelled, turning his katana into a giant shuriken and threw it at the cackling Gem.
Peridot's laughter only stopped when her helicopter arm was buzzsaw and the fingers spun out of control, exploding on impact with the wall. Leaving Peridot to fall back and slam down to the ground screaming. Peridot coughed as she got up, only to and backs off as Isaac and the Cool Kids approached her. However, she still wasn't out of the fight. She still had one finger cannon.
"Hah! Gaaaaaah!" Peridot gasped out loud as she felt a weapon being stabbed through her. Jaw dropped in shock as she looked down and saw a pink sword running through her.
"Gotcha!" Connie exclaimed with a triumphant grin. She knew she could take the green Gem in a head to head fight, but wanted to get to jump on Peridot using stealth.
"N-no!" Peridot cried, her eyes huge with terror. She sucked in a sharp gasp, clearly panicking for a number of reasons as she tried to pull the sword out of Connie's grip, but to no avail. It remained in her.
"It's over," Isaac said, approaching the green Gem.
"Wait, wait.. you- you need me!" She shouted fearfully, her fingers shifting into a laser. The green Gem charged up one final, frantic blast as she desperately tried to keep herself together. "I'm, the only one who knows ABOUT THE—"
Peridot didn't get a chance to finish as Connie pulled the sword out of her, which was just enough to finally destabilize her form entirely. The green Gem let out a final gasp as her form disappeared in a sharp puff of smoke.
When the green smoke dissipated, Isaac and Connie were expecting for her to leave just her gemstone behind. However, alongside her gemstone, Peridot's lower arms and legs, as well as her disjointed fingers dropped to the floor of the old ship, disconnected, much to the surprise of the kids and hybrid, who slowly gathered around them.
"Is…this normal?" Sour Cream asked, baffled as he carefully picked up one of Peridot's former fingers.
"No, this…this is new," Isaac said.
"Ugh, sick," Jenny gagged in disgust. "There's bits of her all over."
"Nope," Buck said with a satisfied grin as he pointed to Peridot's gemstone. "She's right there."
Isaac picked up the gemstone and looked at it with a frown. He should be happy that he finally caught Peridot. That this chapter in his and the Crystal Gem's saga can come to an end. However, he was largely unable to get his mind off of just how frantic Peridot seemed to be, how she had tried so hard to make a hasty escape from Earth for whatever reason, how she tried to offer some sort of panicked warning in the very seconds right before she poofed.
It didn't sit right with Isaac to simply discount all those things as nothing.
"Isaac?"
"Huh?" the hybrid blinked, somewhat distracted as he looked towards the young Indian girl.
"Aren't you gonna bubble her away?" Connie nodded to the green gem.
"Oh, uh… yeah…" Isaac bubbled the gemstone and tapped it, sending it away as the others celebrated their victory with cheers. "I think… I think Peridot was trying to tell us something back there…"
"Oh, like what?"
"Sounds to me like the desperate lies of a liar who's been caught," Buck assured, cracking a comforting smile.
"Yeah, come on," Jenny said. "You don't need to worry about her anymore. Now let's go home. I'm exhausted."
The others readily headed out of the control room. Isaac, on the other hand, hung back slightly, looking out across the battle-worn room. True he'd finally won against Peridot, and even though he did it without the other Gems, it still felt well-earned all the same.
Yet despite the high spirits everyone else was in, Isaac couldn't help but still feel some lingering sense of dread. Peridot's unfinished warning had left him on edge.
Picking up Peridot's remaining…arm, Isaac looked at it before gathering the fingers and feet. He'll need some time to access the information Peridot had in it. He met up with the others on the wrap pad, and wrapped away from the ship.
But little did they know that someone was watching and followed them.
—
As they walked out of the house, after the Cool Kids handed back their weapons, the group of friends walked down the steps of the beach house. They were still riding high on their victory over Peridot, and Isaac felt the same way too. Especially now after he'd looked into the temple and saw that the green Gem was still in the bubble he put her into.
"That was the most awesome thing I've ever done in my life," Jenny said, grinning. "You really do that all the time?"
"It's more dangerous than that, but yeah," Isaac said, smiling. "And hey, thanks for the help, you guys. I know that this was my problem and it didn't—"
"Don't worry about it," Buck said, giving him a fist bump. "That's what friends are for."
"Yeah, but, honestly, I think you should just talk to your girlfriend," Sour Cream said. "I don't know anything about all this stuff but invading aliens, or being your mom's reincarnation, but I do know that you still love her, man."
Connie approached her older friend, looking at him with a worried expression as she held onto Rose's sword. Sheathed, of course.
"Not just her, Isaac," she said. "I think you should take a moment to maybe consider talking to the others as well. You're a team, and family at most."
Isaac looked away from her for a moment as he pondered. However, the moment was cut short by the sudden appearance of a woman who was walking down the sands of the beach, wearing a pale blue shirt under her a white lab coat, tan pants, and dark red low-heeled shoes.
It was said by her colleagues that Priyanka Maheswaran's beauty aged like fine wine. They would never say it to her face, however. The fear of getting verbally reprimanded by the strict, no-nonsense physician was enough to keep them in line. With a dark tan complexion, a small pointed nose, and dark brown shoulder-length hair with dark gray bangs, the woman of 40 years wore an expression that looked as though she had run her face into a stone wall and was about to do it again.
"Connie Maheswaran!" Priyanka yelled as she marched down to her daughter.
Turning around, Connie panicked when she saw her mother coming to her with a furious expression. She quickly hid the pink sword behind her back and then turned to face her body to the approaching woman.
"M-Mom," she asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Don't turn this around on me, young lady," Priyanka said, scolding her daughter as the teenager watched the scene, feeling uncomfortable and out of place. "I told you to be home and I found that you disobeyed me…who are these people?"
She pointed to Isaac and the Cool Kids, making Connie even more nervous.
"Uh, hi, I don't think we've met," Isaac said, trying to defuse the situation. "I'm Isaac, Steven's friend. I wasn't here when you…"
"I know, Mr. Infinite," the doctor said, making it clear that she did not have the best impression of the younger man. He'd already failed her test of showing up for the dinner party, and that was something she couldn't overlook. "Say goodbye to your friends."
The doctor reached out to grab her daughter's hand without any warning, much to Connie's dismay and surprise.
"We'll have to hurry if we want to—" Priyanka stopped short upon hearing the noisy clatter that came as a result of Connie losing her grip on the sword she had been concealing as it fell to the sand.
"Oh no…" Connie groaned, face palming as she realized she had no time to reclaim it before her mother turned to see it lying in plain sight on the ground beside her.
"Is that… a sword?!" Priyanka gasped, picking the sheathed blade up in complete appalment. "Connie, where did you get this?!"
"Hey, be careful!" Isaac snatched the sword from her. "It belonged to a friend of mine."
"Isaac," Connie cried out. However, the situation was far from over and only got started when Priyanka turned her anger on him.
"You?!" Priyanka practically yelled. "You gave my daughter a weapon?!"
Isaac held his hand up. "Ma'am, if you please let me explain."
"How could you possibly think this is ok?!" the doctor exclaimed, completely livid as she glared at him. "Do you know how many children I see coming into the hospital every day who've cut their faces off playing with swords?"
"Uh…"
"None!" Priyanka snapped hotly. "Because they have parents who love them and don't let them play around with deadly weapons like some kind of gang member!"
"B-but-" Connie tried to protest.
"I wouldn't have given Connie that sword if I didn't know she could handle it," Isaac said "That's why she's been coming here. Not just to hang out with Steven and me, but to train how to use a blade and she's really good at it. If you just let her show you what she can do…"
But her mother immediately shot her down. "That does it! I should've listened to my instincts. I knew that you, the Universe boy, and those women were no good. I don't want any of you going anywhere near my daughter."
"What?! Mom, no!" Connie yelled in protest before thinking.
"No?!" Priyanka gave her daughter a look that made her nervous. "Young lady, I am your mother, and when I say you're not going to see the boys again, you're not even allowed to go near their house!"
Suddenly, just as she had pointed to the house, the front of it had a massive hole smashed into it. Everyone turned her attention to the house, alarmed by the explosion, and the smoke coming out of the seahouse. Isaac's gemstone started to glow, raising his concern, even more as he looked back at the house, only for dread to fill his heart when he saw the cause of the destruction being revealed, as the smoke dissipated.
Citrine stepped out of the house through the hole she had made and glazed down at the humans with a stone cold glare.
"Citrine," Isaac gasped in horror.
The yellow juggernaut jumped high into the air, much to the surprise of the humans who didn't know what they were dealing with. Citrine landed down on the sands behind the group. They turned around as she stood up to her full height.
"I'm surprised you fell for my trap, General," she said, glaring at Isaac. "Considering it's one of yours. You really have lost your touch."
"Connie, get your mom and the others out of here," Isaac told his young friend.
"Excuse me, what is going on?" Priyanka demanded to know. "What gives you the right to order my daughter around?
"Ma'am, please just listen to him," Jenny said, as she and her friends knew this was a fight that they couldn't get into, unless they wanted to be torn to bits.
"I'm not doing anything the sword wielding hooligan tells me," said the doctor.
"It would be wise to listen," Citrine said, glaring at the mother before turning back to Isaac. "Considering what I can do to these humans."
"If you touch them, I'm gonna make you regret," Isaac said, drawing Rose's sword in front of Priyanka and our daughter.
Citrine scoffed. "You always cared so much for these insignificant creatures, General, even when you were one of us."
"Okay, that's it," Priyanka said, pushing Isaac aside, and marching up to the yellow Gem, much to the shock and dismay of everyone, as they tried to call her back. Their pleas fell on deaf ears and she pointed a finger at Citrine. "I don't know what's going on here, but I am not going to let my daughter get wrapped up in some gang related fight—"
Citrine's massive hand grabbed Priyanka by her face.
"Mom!" Connie cried out and tried to run to her, but Jenny stopped her.
Shocked and feeling the yellow's fingers gripping down on her skull, Priyanka struggled to break Citrine's hold of her. However, the yellow Gem lifted her up and threw her to the side. Connie ran over to her mom, who was shaken by the yellow Gem's immense power.
"My battle is not with you," the yellow Gem said, turning back to Isaac.
This was extremely bad, and Isaac knew he had to get his friends and the woman away from the area, and to safety. But at the same time, Citrine wasn't going to let him go. "All of you, in the house, now!" Isaac yelled, pointing to the house as he dropped the scabbard. "And call Steven!"
"B-But Isaac!" Connie protested.
However, Isaac wasn't having any of it at the moment, especially as Citrine's gemstone glowed and her kunai was summoned. "I said NOW!" Isaac yelled.
Sour Cream quickly ran over to Priyanka, and with the help of Buck, pulled the mother up off the sand. Jenny took Connie's hand and pulled her along as the group ran to the house. "Come on!"
Isaac turned back to Citrine.
"Don't disappoint me," she said.
She whipped her chained kunai at him. Isaac reacted with lightning fast reflexes. Using the board side of Rose's sword, he blocked the attack, and charged at Citrine. Citrine let go of the chain and summoned another kunai into her hand. Using it to block an aggressively swung slice at her body. Starking of metal grinding flew as Isaac sent her skidding across the sand before coming to a stop. Of course she couldn't match her in strength.
Isaac knew this, but between the two of them, Citrine technically was the most experienced. More than he could have in this second life. His mother's full experience wasn't his yet. He hasn't remembered enough to know how to quickly beat her. The last two fights were only survived thanks to extraordinary circumstances and pure luck.
—
Being the last person to get into the house, Connie pulled out her phone and started dialing Steven's phone number. "Connie, get away from there!" Priyanka yelled, pulling her daughter away from the front of the house. "Everyone, in the bathroom, now!"
The Cool Kids offered no protest. They all piled into the bathroom and the doctor locked the door. She was panting, trying to recompose herself and get a grip of her nerves.
"That…This…This is too much. I'm calling the police right now," she said, pulling out her own phone.
"Mom, the police can't do anything to stop Citrine!" Connie protested. "I-I don't even know if there is a police in town."
"Eh…" Buck gave a maybe-maybe hand gesture. He and the others don't even know if there's a police department.
"How do you know that…that woman's name," the mother demanded.
"Her name is Citrine, and she's an alien, just like Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst. But she's a bad Gem. She's here on Earth to hurt the planet!" Connie said, scrolling through her contacts. "Isaac's the only one that can fight her, but we need Steven and the Crystal Gems here to take her down."
"Connie, what you're saying is ludicrous," Priyanka said, not believing a word that her daughter was saying. The woman of logic and reason couldn't.
"You saw what she could do!" Sour Cream said.
"There's…There's a logical reason for that."
"Yeah, it's called magic, and we need more magical people to stop her," Connie said, finding Steven's phone number.
—
"You don't remember that sword, do you?" Citrine asked.
Isaac looked at the pink sword. "All I know is that Rose had this sword."
Citrine said, "Be happy that Jasper didn't hear you say that."
The yellow Gem and hybrid charged at each other. Isaac tried to slash at her, but the more experienced fighter side stepped him. Letting him pass before stabbing him in the back of his right shoulder.
Isaac screamed in pain as he turned back around and slashed at Citrine, knocking another kunai she summoned out of her hand. Reaching back and grabbing the kunai, the young man yelled as he yanked it out and threw at the yellow Gem. Making her jump back in a back flip.
The two combatants glared at one another, as Isaac's wounds healed. At the same time, while Isaac was panting, Citrine spoke to him and said, "Why do you continue to fight for this planet, General?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Isaac asked, as they both circled each other.
"You had nothing to gain from the humans. No reason to fight for them. And yet, here you stand, with your life on the line, for them. Instead of worrying about your own life, you would rather protect human lives, who, on a cosmic scale, are the size of a grain of sand."
Isaac scoffed and asked, "Is that so hard to understand?"
Citrine's glare narrowed as she shot her kunai at him. Isaac deflected the attack with Rose's sword, then charged again, trying to close the distance.
However, the yellow Gem saw this, and yanked her chained kunai downwards. Isaac looked back up and gasped when he saw the kunai coming back down. Thinking fast, he cut the chain and turned back.
Only to gasp when he saw that Citrine had disappeared with the use of her cloaking ability. As he looked around for the yellow Gem, he heard her voice echoing around him.
"You used to be so much more…"
—
After a wait that felt like an eternity, Steven finally picked up the phone and said, "Hey, Connie. We've just gotten dad's brushes…"
"Steven, Citrine is attacking us!" Connie all nearly shouted into the phone.
"WHAT!?" yelled not just Steven, but Greg and two other people she didn't know.
"Isaac's holding her off, but I don't know for how long," she said, looking at the door with worry. "You've got to get back here!"
"Okay, I'll call Vidalia and tell her to send Amethyst back home. Where's Pearl?!"
"I don't know!"
"Connie, we're not gonna make it in time."
"S-so, that's it? W-we're trapped!" the doctor exclaimed, quite alarmed by this turn of events. The sound of blades clashing ringing from outside.
"We don't have to be!" Connie proclaimed, her expression adamant, refusing to give up in these dire straits. "Get Amethyst to come back, Steven. I'm going out there to help Isaac."
She hung up and turned to the door, only for her mother to block her path. "No, you're not!" Priyanka argued, just as resilient on her side of the matter as her daughter was.
Having had enough, Jenny groaned in frustration. "Ahh...Mrs. Maheswaran!
"Dr. Maheswaran!"
"Bitch, whatever!"
"Excuse me?!"
"I know you're trying to protect your daughter," Jenny said, trying to reason with the stubborn woman, "but if Isaac really gave her that sword and a job to protect us, then you should at least trust him."
"Young lady, you better watch your mouth with me, and why should I trust him with anything?!" Priyanka said heatedly. "As far as I'm concerned, he's nothing but a stranger who gave my daughter and a bunch of kids deadly weapons like some kind of gang member!"
"Isaac isn't the bad guy here!" Connie exclaimed. "Citrine is!"
—
Panting, Isaac was injured and injured badly. He had cuts in his clothes that bleed, and was having a hard time trying to keep himself focused. Citrine's attacks came from nowhere and he wasn't able to predict where she was going to be. Especially when her voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere.
"You were a hero to Homeworld. The moment you appeared on the battlefield, it brought hope to your troops. You were a symbol. You were ruthless to the rebellion! You were a monster! Rose Quartz feared you above all else."
"I was a different person," Isaac said.
"No, you were a soldier."
Isaac's ears picked up the sound of sand shifting. He looked down and to the right, and that's when he saw sand being moved aside and sinking in. As if a pair of invisible feet were pressing down on it.
Continuing to watch the phenomenon suspiciously, Isaac said, "You say that like they're two different things."
"When a true soldier is told to kill, she kills. She does not question why, she does not mourn the fallen; she fulfills her role and moves on to the next…"
"Is that what you want to be? A true soldier?"
"No." Citrine decloaked. "That is what I am!"
She attacked with another series of fast whips with her chained kunai, forcing Isaac to deflect some of them, before jumping out of the way of one that came down on him. Sand was kicked up into the air, as Isaac got back up. When the dust settled, however, Citrine had disappeared again.
"Damn it...!"
—
"Isaac is trying to protect us from a really bad person," Buck said. "Can't you see that?
"And Connie's been friends with him and Steven for a while now, and she's been trying to learn how to fight," Sour Cream said. "I say let her go and fight."
The doctor quickly denied, refusing to believe anything of the sort. "No. No, no, no, no, no, no. I know my daughter! I know what she's doing every second of the day. All her activities, all her internets, I know she's definitely not some gang member and after tonight, she'll never see that sword fighting hooligan, because I will never let her go back to see him and Steven!"
By this point, Connie had enough. Throughout her childhood, she had always listened to what her parents told her. Trying her hardest to be the perfect daughter to gain their approval and pride. Given their very high standards for her, it was tedious, laborious, and even difficult at times.
However, such standards can no longer be applied. Because not only were they in a life or death situation, but things had changed. She had changed. It was a shift that everyone who knew her, everyone who came in contact with her had been able to see. Especially herself.
Everyone but her own mother was blinded to it. And it was time to make her see it.
"You don't know me at all!" She finally snapped, beyond frustrated with her mother's stubbornness. "You still haven't even noticed my glasses!"
"W-what about your glasses?"
"They don't have lenses anymore!" Connie grabbed her glasses and poked her finger straight through them. "I haven't needed actual glasses for almost the entire summer!"
"What?!" Priyanka asked, completely baffled. "Your eyesight just… magically got better?"
"Yes!" Connie shouted adamantly. "I've been dealing with magic and monsters and things like these, ever since I met Steven and Isaac! That's why I need you to just trust me and believe that I know what to do here!"
The doctor paused, her expression softening somewhat as she looked to her daughter with genuine conflict. "B-but… you..." She trailed off, true concern and fear in her eyes as she met her daughter's still quite adamant expression.
Connie, however, knew that she couldn't afford to wait for it any longer. "Ugh, there's no time for this!" she groaned, finally doing what she had wanted to do from the very beginning.
In a move too quick for mother to stop her, Connie dived past the woman and flew open the door.
"Connie!" Priynaka screamed.
Connie opened the door and was about to run for the hole. However, she stopped when the young Indian girl's path was blocked by something else. Someone who was standing on the other side of the door.
–
"We're soldiers, General. We complete our—"
Isaac sighed in annoyance with his back turned to the house. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're not supposed to be any more than what we are. You can say that as many times as you want, but do you even believe what you're saying? Because if you do, then I know what you really are. You're a coward."
"Ridiculous…"
"You keep trying to play yourself off as some sort of weapon. That you don't care about anyone or anything," Isaac said to the invisible yellow Gem. "But you forgot the one thing that makes us different from machines. We make our own decisions. And we have to live with them.
"But the fact that you're trying so hard to understand me breaks your entire act! No matter how hard you may want to be, you're not a machine, you're a murderer. But you hide behind the idea in your head, because you're too afraid to take responsibility for what you've done.
"I'm not General Onyx. I'm…I'm what came after her. Everything she used to be is now me. And I know, I used to be a real piece of shit. But at least I'm trying to do something about it," he said.
Citrine decloaked and furious jumped and tried to attack Isaac from the left side.
And just before she could land a blow, after staying away from Isaac, believing him to not want to see her again, Pearl came to rescue and blocked Citrine's attack. Holding her spear up high, she stopped the yellow Gem's kunai. But being weaker than the brute, the white Gem's knees buckled under her strength and had her falling to one.
"Pearl!" Isaac shouted in shock.
Pearl gritted her teeth and said, "Get away from my darling!" She pushed Citrine back and tried stabbing at the yellow Gem.
Citrine jumped back to avoid the stab. That's when Connie came rushing at her with the gladius. She swung, sliced, and slashed at Citrine, who blocked off her attacks with ease. Parrying one attack, she twirled and whipped her chained kunai at the young girl, only for Connie to duck her head just in time before trying to stab at her leg.
The blade nearly punctured her if Citrine hadn't jumped back again.
Connie went back over to Pearl, and the two girls stood in front of Isaac, ready to fight the Homeworld soldier with him. All while Isaac looked at his girlfriend in utter shock. "Pearl," he said.
Pearl looked back at him with a guilt-filled smile. "I'm here, darling," she said, turning back to Citrine. "Right now, I've got a Homeworld bitch to hurt for touching my man!"
Citrine growled at her situation. Once again, her mission had failed, and now she was outnumbered. "Unfortunate," said the Gem. "You may have been able to best the Peridot. However, I now know of your location. I'm now able to strike you whenever I please, and believe me, I'm not as cowardly as her."
"What makes you think we're going to just let you walk away?" Isaac said, pointing Rose's sword at her.
"Because you can't fight what you can't see," Citrine told him, before disappearing.
This took the girls by surprise, but then Isaac's eyes widened. "THE WARP PAD!"
He turned and made a run for the house, with Pearl and Connie, realizing it too, ran behind him.
However, it was too late. By the time they made it back to the house, the warp pad had lit up and it took Citrine's silhouette with her. Spiriting her away to God knows where. Filling Isaac with a new sense of dread, as not only did they now have another Gem on the loose in the world, but one more capable than Peridot could have ever been.
"We trade one villain for another," he said.
Just then, the door to the bathroom opened and each of the Cool Kids poked their heads out from around the corner. "Is it safe to come out," Sour Cream asked.
"As safe as it'll ever be," Isaac said.
"Right," Buck said, walking past him. "Well, we're gonna go home."
"Yeah, my step dad's gonna be pissed if I don't show up," Sour Cream said as he patted Isaac on the shoulder.
Jenny winked as she passed him. "Seeya, Isaac."
"Yeah, see you guys later," he said, sighed. Isaac then turned to Pearl and smiled. "Hey, thanks for the save back there." He turned to Connie. "Both of you."
Connie didn't get much of a chance to respond, however, before she saw her mother standing near the broken window at the front. Having seen the fight, she looked at her daughter with uncertainty.
Isaac turned and saw the woman approaching, her manner strangely anxious as she met her daughter's somewhat unreadable gaze. "We'll give you two some space," Isaac said, taking his girlfriend's hand and pulling her away to the stairs and up to the second floor. Giving the two the space they needed.
"C-Connie," Priyanka began gently, looking between her daughter and the sword in her hand.
She was stopped when Amethyst came running in through the hold in the wall, her whip out.
"I'm here! What did I miss?" she said in a panic, as Lion walked in from behind her.
The woman yelled in shock.
"It's okay, Dr. Maheswaran," Isaac said from the second floor. "That's…Well, it's Steven's Lion."
"He's actuallying the reason I got here in time," Pearl said, looking down with shame.
Connie, seeing her mom shivering at the sight of Lion, sighed and dropped the Gladius sword. As Amethyst and Lion walked up to the second floor, she walked to Dr. Maheswaran.
"I… is this… really what you've been doing all summer," Priyanka asked her daughter. "Training to fight these… people?"
"Yeah…" Connie nodded, glancing down guiltily. "Mom… I'm really sorry about lying to you."
"But…But why would you lie to me?"
"Because I knew that you would have reacted the exact way you did," Connie said, fidgeting with her glasses. "I knew that if you knew, you wouldn't let me see Steven or Isaac ever again. So, it started off as a tiny secret, and then it felt like I didn't hide it…"
"Is… is that how you feel?" Priyanka asked, her tone genuinely upset. Not at her daughter, though. The doctor only ever wanted Connie to tell her the truth. It was one of her rules. To know that it unintentionally caused her daughter such worry and fear made her heart ache. "Am…I'm too controlling?"
"…Maybe…" Connie admitted with a small shrug, deciding to be completely honest with her mother on this.
"I just… wanted to be a good mother," the doctor said remorsefully, almost sadly even. "I-I just wanted to protect you."
"But I can protect myself now!" Connie urged firmly. "You saw that I can! You just… need to start trusting that I can handle some things on my own."
The mom looked at her daughter in shock, yet was still conflicted. However, Priyanka sighed, coming to a decision as she knelt down and placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"You're growing up so fast, aren't you?" she said, a hint of pride filling her tone. "Okay. I'll…I'll pull back on the rules. And I'll try to keep an open mind about this," she nodded to the sword Connie had dropped.
"And that," she looked towards Lion.
"And them…" She nodded to the somewhat confused Gems.
"And…him…" She finished rather tightly, looking at Isaac. "It's just… it scares me that you can't talk to me about all this!" Priyanka pressed with apt concern. "I know your father and I separating has been hard, and I'm sorry for it, but I need to know what's happening in your life. I need to be able to step in when you're in over your head. Would you just promise me that you'll stop all the lying?"
Feeling her eyes watering up, Connie nodded. "That's a rule."
"I love you, honey," Priyanka smiled as she pulled her daughter into a warm, protective embrace.
"I love you too, Mom," Connie retorted just as contentedly, more than happy to let her mother intervene if the need ever arose.
Isaac wore a soft smile himself as he stood by, watching this heartwarming display. However, his grin did fade somewhat as he happened to glance at Pearl. Knowing that he would need to come to that same conclusion too. Not just for both of them, but for his family.
Letting her daughter go, Priyanka turned to Isaac and wiped away her tears. "Mr. Infinite, was it?"
"Isaac would do," said the demi-Gem as he hopped down to the first floor and approached the older woman.
"Right," Priyanka said, looking unsure about him. "Well…I just want to say…thank you, for teaching my daughter, and…for being there when I can't be. And I'd like to apologize for…my harsh and unprofessionalism towards you. It's clear why Connie speaks so highly of you."
Isaac smiled and said, "I aim to please, Dr. Maheswaran." He then held out his hand to her.
Priyanka blushed lightly as she took his hand and shook it. "Indeed, young man. And while my daughter is in your care, I do expect you to protect her," she said.
"You have my word, Dr. Maheswaran," he said.
Just then, Steven and Greg came into the house, looking panicked as the young boy summoned his shield. "Don't worry, Connie! We're here!" the young boy yelled.
"It's over Steven," Isaac said, letting go of Priyanka's hand. "She's gone."
"Oh, okay. Hi, Connie. Hi, Dr. Maheswaran." Steven happily waved at the Maheswaran girls, as two unexpected members of the Crystal Gems walked in the room.
"Whoa," Amethyst said as she and Pearl looked in complete shock. "Ruby? Sapphire?"
The red Gem looked glared at Pearl before turning away with her arms crossed. Sapphire remained silent.
"Right, I think it's time for Connie to get to bed," Isaac said. "We've got…family business to take care of."
The doctor was confused before Sapphire spoke. "He is referring to our separation, caused by our differing views over Pearl tricking Isaac into fusing with her."
"I…I see that this might not be something I can help out with, so we'll be taking our leave," Priyanka said, taking her daughter's hand and pulling her along to the exit. With Connie giving everyone one final wave.
Isaac crossed his arms and looked at the two small Gems, while Greg took Steven to the side.
"Alright, what happened," he asked.
"Us?! What about you?" Ruby exclaimed. "Pearl used you to form Black Opal! She tricked you! Don't you feel used?"
"As you can see, she's choosing to take what happened to you personally," Sapphire said, emotionlessly.
"Because it's fusion, Sapphire! What's more personal and important to us than fusion?!"
"I know, and I know why you're upset."
"Oh, so it's just me?"
"Of course not." Sapphire turned to her. "Can't you see that I'm completely engulfed in rage?"
"You both are fucking idiots!" The two Gems looked at Isaac in shock. Even Sapphire, who didn't predict this outcome. "I mean how self centered do the two of you bitches have to be to get mad over something that didn't even happen to you? What? You think that because you two are fusion, you have some kind of authority in the matter. And now you two broke up just because of me and Pearl's fight?"
"B-But aren't you?" Ruby asked.
"Yes, I'm mad about the whole thing! But I've been trying to fix things with Pearl, yet oh no, here comes Garnet with a stick up her fused ass, thinking that she has a say in every fusion, but you don't! Period," Isaac yelled, gloating at the two small Gems with great fury, making them both step back. "You don't speak for Black Opal, you don't speak for normal Opal, you don't even speak for Stevonnie. You speak for Garnet and any other fusion she is in. So get off your high and mighty house, quit acting like you have any authority over anyone's fusion, and worry about your own relationship and fusion!"
"B-But—"
"Did I fucking studder?"
That shut up Ruby and Sapphire.
"Besides, it doesn't matter anymore what happened," Isaac said, looking not just at them, but everyone. "None of it matters now. We've poofed Peridot and now she's locked away. But Citrine is back. She's gone now, but will be back, now that she knows where we live. So whatever is going on, whatever problems we have with each other, it ends tonight."
Silence hung in the room.
Isaac turned to Pearl and held his hand out to her. "Pearl, mind accompanying me?"
"Where are we going?" Pearl asked, feeling worried.
Isaac turned to Ruby and Sapphire. "Like I said, we're the masters of our own fusions. They have their own problems to work out," he said, turning back to the white Gem. "It's time we talked too."
–
While it was night time at Beach City, the sun was just beginning to set on Mask Island. Issac sat next to Pearl as they watched the sunset. The atmosphere was thick between them. Like they were both standing on the edge of a cliff or a sword hung over their heads.
Isaac turned to his beautiful girlfriend, a woman he'd been infatuated with for so long and won her affection. Now, it was in danger. If there was a moment that could've changed the outcome of them ending a relationship so good as theirs, this was that kind of moment.
"Pearl—"
"I'm sorry, Issac," Pearl said, hugging her legs to her chest. She eyes watering as she tried to keep herself from crying. "I should've never done what I did. I'll understand if you don't want to speak to me again."
"Pearl, that's not—" Isaac stopped himself. "I just wanna know why. Why did you do all that stuff instead of just asking me to fuse with you?"
Pearl sniffled as she shut her eyes tightly. "I don't know. I was stupid. I don't have a proper answer," she said, lightly sobbing as the immense guilt she felt has been weighing her down for so long. Garnet being mad at her was bad enough, but the thought of her darling hating her made her stay away from him. "Because, I wanted to recapture that moment. Because, I couldn't imagine another moment in which we could make our relationship official in Gem terms. Because—because I know what I am and what you are."
"What do you mean by that?" Isaac became worried.
Pearl wiped her tears away and turned her head away from him, looking across the sea. "Pearls aren't like other Gems, Issac," she said, her mind thinking of clams and the earth made pearls they make. "We aren't soldiers, nor strong, not even more than symbols of status."
Issac's eyes widened. "What?"
Pearl took a deep breath and continued. "Pearls in Gem Culture are not exactly seen as equals to any other Gems. Even within the caste system Homeworld has, Pearls are second-class citizens, as some humans put it. We function as attendants to high-ranking Gems. We're nothing more than ladies-in-waiting, footmen, and secretaries. We are nothing more than slaves. Servants, whose job is nothing more than to be used by the highest members of Gem society, and then thrown away when they tire of their shiny toys."
Issac's eyes widened the longer he listened to Pearl tell him everything about Pearls and their role on Homeworld. And the more he listened, the more enraged he became, knowing that she was not only speaking from the experience of others, but her's a well. The thought of anyone treating Pearl like a toy made him want to start shattering.
"T-That's messed up!" Isaac exclaimed, gently turning her head to look at him, as her eyes filled with pain and suffering. "If that's the way you feel, then stop it! You're amazing! You're the best swordswoman I know. The best mechanic. The best pilot. You're more amazing than many people I've met."
Pearl averted her eyes from her beloved, yet it didn't stop the smile forming on her face. "Thank you, Issac," she said, grasping his hand. "But that doesn't change what I've been told almost my whole life. I don't have the same kind of innate power that you, or Steven, or Garnet, or even Amethyst have. And when we fuse, I get a chance to feel what it's like to be much stronger. I guess it was more personal and deeper with you since... you know."
"I think I get it... But that still doesn't change the fact that you are an amazing person on your own," Isaac said. "You know more about what to do with power than I do. The truth is, that power scares me. I'm afraid that I'll lose control and hurt those around me. When I'm with you, that fear subsides. I want you by my side, Pearl."
"As an ally?"
"As more than that," Isaac kissed her gemstone, making sparkling. "I love you, Pearl. But I want us to be there for each other. And we can't have that if we are fused. You're stronger in areas I'm not. You learned how to fight, build, and become so much more than what everyone ever thought you could be. That's who I want you by my side.
Pearl looked at him in confusion. "B-But what about fusion? I thought that if Garnet—"
"Garnet may feel that her way is special," Isaac said, shaking his head. But it isn't the only way. We don't need to be one person the entire time to have a meaningful relationship. I want you as my equal by my side."
Pearl looked at her darling boyfriend in shock and awe. "You don't care that I might slow you down," she asked, fearful of his answer and how he might regret his decision. "Not be there all the time?"
"Pearl, that's how life is sometimes," he replied, poking her pointy nose. "That's what being human sometimes is like. Also, pardon my French, but those Homeworld bitches can go fuck themselves. If I had to pick a Pearl, it would have been you every time. You are one in a million, and I wouldn't want you any other way."
"Oh, Issac~." Pearl and Issac kissed each other deeply, a fire of passion erupting within them. "And that wasn't French. I believe the correct translation would be: Ces salopes de Homeworld peuvent aller se faire foutre."
Issac laughed and looked at Pearl with amazement. "I didn't know you spoke French."
"Well, some of the books I've collected were in other languages. It's a skill I just picked up," she said, blushing. Pearl then leaned in with a more seductive smile. "And that's not the only French thing I learned~."
Isaac growled wantingly. "Come here you!" He pounced on her, locking their lips in a passionate makeout section. At least, their love for one another can continue to grow stronger.
AN: Alright, I'm finally back! I've been dealing with a lot of writer's block from this story, but I think I'm finally ready to come back to it.
One of the reasons that it's been hard for me to write this is mainly because I really didn't want to do this part of Steven Universe. Luckily, I was able to finger out a way to not only incorporate multiple episodes into one chapter, but also finish this arc in one chapter. Tying up loose ends and resolving the conflict between Isaac and the other characters.
The idea of Connie's parents being separated came to explain one thing that has always bothered me. Most of the time in the show, I've wondered why we never got to see much of Connie's dad. I decided to use this as a way to explain it. Unlike Priyanka, who has had more story time and more character development, I can't remember the last time Doug was in an episode that didn't involve him and his wife being there for something. Plus, neither of them wear their rings.
And in a way, it actually fits. Priyanka is a career focused woman, and while she's settled at the hospital, Doug has different jobs all around the state. Being separated is a more practical way for both of them to continue their careers.
And then we get to the part that I've been waiting for so long to make. Citrine's return. I've been waiting for the perfect time to bring back this character, and I think it was handled quite nicely. Peridot's capture dragged out way too long in the show, and it should have been so much easier.
But now, just as Isaac and the humans took out our favorite green Gem, a bigger threat has returned. And we'll be seeing more of Citrine soon.
So, until the next chapter comes out, stay tuned.