Hello and welcome readers to my Steven Universe fanfiction. Anyway, I don't own anything except for the OC.
Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody. Steven Universe is owned by Cartoon Network and Rebecca Sugar. Please support the Official Release.
Mirror Gem
The day begins inside the Crystal Temple inside the Beach House, where Steven is lying on the couch in the living room of the Beach House, talking on his phone with Connie.
"What…? Why not?" Steven groans disappointedly.
"Steven, I told you I can't hang out today." Connie reminded him over the phone. "I have tennis practice. And then Mom wants to go out for a family dinner. But she said I could hang out all day tomorrow, and I can come over all the time now that it's summer vacation."
Steven flops off the couch. "What's summer vacation?" He asked with confusion.
"You know when school gets out for the summer?" Connie informed him.
That only confuses Steven more. "I've never been to this… How do you say— "School"? How does it work?
"It's a place where you go to learn. It's full of desks, chalkboards, books, maps."
Steven narrows his eyes. "Hmm. I see."
Shortly after the phone, Steven begins to assemble a pile of school equipment in the kitchen with the help of Pearl. The pile is made of a cardboard box, a plastic human torso with an open diorama of the digestive system, a globe, a potted plant, maps, a stack of books, a TV, a chalkboard, and, for some reason, a basketball.
Steven examines the pile. "Yep, it's all coming together."
Finally, Pearl adds a desk to the pile. "So, how do we begin our "school"?"
Steven stopped and reexamined the pile. "Ugh… I… I don't know! This is everything Connie told me. Why do I never ask follow-up questions?!" Steven lamented his mistake loudly.
Vergil then enters the house and goes over to them as he sees the pile. "Hey, what'd I miss?"
"Vergil!" Steven hastily runs over to him and clasps his hands on Vergil's shoulders. "You know stuff, right?"
Vergil blinked. "…I believe I do?"
"Then, do you know how "school" works?" Steven asked desperately.
Vergil smiled as he shrugged his shoulders. "Of course I do. I've played all the Persona games, after all."
"That's great!" Steven became excited. "Then how do we begin our school? I already have all the stuff Connie said it has."
Now, Vergil examines the pile. "Hmm, true, you have everything you need. All you need to start is to sit at the desk and have someone teach you stuff."
The moment Pearl heard the word 'teach,' Pearl gasped happily at the idea. "Teach him?! Steven! If only I had known that's what you really wanted!" She moved away from the blackboard and stood in an open space. Then the white Gem struck a strange pose. "Twooooh!" She then begins doing a brief dance that they saw her do only once. Ending it by having her hands around her Gemstone. "Haaaaaah!" Pearl's Gem began to glow as she summoned a growling orb that floated over to the boys.
That orb took on a new form. A simple, average-sized hand mirror. It had an ornate silver-blue metallic material design that comprised the mirror's backing and handle. The glass was a round piece of reflective blue glass with a faint contour of an octagonal Gemstone etched on its surface. However, the most interesting part about it was a strange, blue Gemstone that was embedded on the back, which took the form of a water droplet and had a rather deep crack etched into its otherwise smooth surface.
The mirror twirled in mid-air before Steven reached out and grabbed it. "We found this Gem-powered mirror at the Galaxy Warp. It can capture and display any event it's witnessed in all of Gem history." Pearl explained as Steven held the mirror in front of his face. Vergil moved in to look in the mirror while the white Gem walked around them and placed her hands on both the boys' shoulders. "It'll offer you everything you've ever wanted to know about your fellow Gems and our culture."
Steven looks at his and Vergil's reflections in the mirror. "We must be incredibly important to Gem culture."
Pearl scoffs and corrects him. "It's just you in there. It hasn't even been activated."
"But that doesn't mean we aren't important to Gem culture." Vergil pointed out.
"Yes, well…" Pearl cleared her throat and then spoke in an authoritative tone. "Show us the Galaxy Warp." The mirror does nothing. It just stayed still and silent as any ordinary mirror would. "Show. Us. The Galaxy Warp." Pearl tried again, more firmly this time, but it still did nothing, making her frustrated. "Oh, come on! I know you've seen it." She grabbed the mirror while Steven was still holding onto the mirror and got lifted along. Pearl examines the mirror and sighs in disappointment. "It is in pretty rough shape. It must finally be broken. What a shame."
Steven held it up and admired himself in the mirror. "Doesn't seem broken to me!"
"Well, the Gem in the back is cracked. Do you think that's why it doesn't work?" Vergil theorized.
"I suppose that's a possibility." Pearl said, walking past the boys. "Oh well. I guess that's the end of our school."
This changed Steven's expression to a look of excitement, and his body shook a bit. "Whoa. Wha… So you could say… School's out for summer?" He asked, with big eyes.
Not really paying attention to him, Pearl chuckled and replied. "Yes. Good, Steven. There are many ways to say the same thing."
Not wasting another moment, Steven grabbed Vergil's arm and pulled him along after him as they rushed out the door. "School's out!"
Pearl then looked at the pile, examining it herself. "Hmm. The asymmetry of this pile is really starting to bother me."
Steven started running down the beach with Vergil, who was not that far behind. The boy sped up to catch up with his friend and was now running alongside him. "School's out!" Steven shouted happily, turning to Vergil. "Happy summer vacation, Vergil!"
"Steven, this summer is no different than every other summer in Beach City. Why are you so excited?" Vergil asked with a bemused grin.
Steven broke out into laughter as he started slowing down and walking backward. "Oh, come on, Vergil. This time, it's summer vacation! Happy summer vacation, Beach City!" He yelled with his hands up and chuckled. "Yeah!"
Not looking where he is going, Steven bumps into Lars and Sadie, who are setting up tables outside the Big Donut. Causing them to knock over the table they were carrying out.
"Ugh, watch where you're going, you little f…" Lars began before a harsh hiss, stopping himself when he glanced at Sadie. "Ssssteven!" He said bitterly.
"Sorry! I'm just so excited for summer. Are you excited for summer? I'm so excited for summer!" Steven exclaimed happily.
"For some unexplained reason." Vergil added laidback.
Sadie laughed a little at the enthusiasm that the boy showed. "Uh, I think I'm as excited as I can get about setting up extra seating for the summer rush." She said with a casual grin, gesturing to the extra tables and seats placed all around the front of the store. "But Lars has big plans."
Lars was picking at his teeth before noticing that the others were looking at him. "You bet I do!" He exclaimed with a smile. "All those out-of-town summer babes traveling away from home without their boyfriends, if you know what I mean." Lars jittered his eyebrows.
Steven looked cluelessly at Lars before innocently shaking his head. "Nope."
"Maybe I'll get a few numbers." Lars said with a wistful sigh, getting caught up in his own fantasy—Much to Sadie's amusement. "Maybe I'll even… Call one."
"I wouldn't recommend that Lars." Vergil advised him against that plan. "In all the Persona games, whenever the guys tried going out to hit on girls on the beach, it always ends horribly for them."
"Ah, come on, that's just a game. It's not gonna happen to me." Lars dismissed his warning.
Not helping herself, Sadie let out a laugh before correcting herself and retorting. "Ha! Well, yeah, maybe I'll meet a new friend." She said awkwardly.
"That's a great idea!" Steven said with a smile. "A special new friend to have fun on the beach within the summer. Maybe if I keep using the mirror to guide me, I'll walk backward into my own beach-summer-fun buddy!" He held the mirror out and started walking backward. The young boy then waved at Vergil. "Come on, Vergil! Follow me!"
"Do I even have a choice?" He asked good-naturedly before he started walking away after his friend, who was already heading off into town.
"Next time you see me, I'll be on the arm of a hot woman!" Lars called out boastfully.
"You can stop talking about it now." Sadie said with a frown.
With their newfound hunt for friends on, Vergil followed Steven as he continued walking down the boardwalk. Steven started running backward ahead of his friend while laughing, and then he began imitating Michael Jackson and moonwalking. "Wo, Wo, Wo, Wo! Wo, Wo, Wo, Wo! Wo, Wo, Hee-Hee!"
Vergil laughed at the boy as Steven continued to moonwalk into the boardwalk when Mayor Dewey's Van, reflected by the mirror and chanting "May-or Dew-ey," drove towards him.
"Er, watch where you're going, you little!"
[Huh?]
Both of them questioned, though they heard it quite clearly as well. They looked towards the source and saw it was the mirror that said it, showing Lars in its glass. Steven turned around, and his heart sank when he saw the van heading straight for him. "Nooo!" He screamed in fear.
"Steven, look out!" Vergil rushed over in a panic.
The child braced himself for a painful impact, which never came as the van immediately came to a screeching halt right in front of him.
Mayor Dewey leaned out of the van, glaring at them with an annoyed scowl, and started to scold them through a megaphone. "Car wash kid, what are you doing?!" He shouted.
"I don't know. Why were you driving down the boardwalk?" Steven questioned back.
"I'm the mayor!" Dewey protested sourly like it was obvious. "I'm not going to walk anywhere. Now, go get run over somewhere else. I'm late for a speech."
"Is that why your van is chanting?" Vergil asked.
"That's right!" Dewey answered as though he was glad someone asked. "It'll be the greatest speech ever said on the beach."
The mayor turned his nose up at the two, maneuvered the van around them, and began to drive off again.
Steven looks at the mirror with great wonder. "What just happened?"
Vergil leaned in with the same look. "It's like the mirror just… Spoke?"
At first, it was just an ordinary mirror until it suddenly rippled like water and whirled into what could only be described as a recording of Steven laughing. The two hybrids stared in complete astonishment, seeing this, unable to believe their eyes.
Steven gasped in awe. "You work! This is so cool!" He exclaimed happily. "What's it like being a mirror?"
The image in the mirror whirled to show Steven when he said. "You work!"
"All the time?" Vergil asked this time.
"That's-right!" This time, the mirror coupled with Dewey's voice.
They both looked in the mirror. It was kind of weird how freely the mirror was acting right now. "So you can repeat stuff." He asked the mirror itself.
"Yeah!" The mirror exclaimed in Steven's voice.
"Hello, Beach City, my friends!" The two Gems shifted their attention from the mirror and glanced over to the beach to see the mayor was giving a speech on the beach. He was speaking into a microphone while standing on top of his van, which was surrounded by a crowd of townsfolk. Vergil and Steven ran over to the crowd with the mirror. "It's great to be here to celebrate the coming season. A warm summer breeze wafts through the air." Dewey said with bravado.
Inhaling a deep breath of air, Steven placed his palms to his mouth and let out a very loud, fake fart noise. "PBHT!" The crowd around them snickered softly at this.
Mayor Dewey continued on with his speech, having not heard the fart noise. "We all look forward to the sounds of the summer season..."
Immediately understanding that joke the boys were going for, the mirror replayed Steven's fart noise. "PBHT!"
"…The smells of the busy boardwalk…."
"PBHT!"
"…The hot, wet ocean wind…."
"PBHT!"
"…The time to take that pressure that's built up all year and just let it out."
"PBHT!"
After that last fake fart, the crowd and the boys' finally lost it and broke out into full-fledged laughter. Dewey finally realized that he was being mocked and ended the speech.
As the crowd dispersed, Vergil and Steven looked down at the mirror. "Wow, you picked that up fast." Steven said to the mirror.
"I guess it has the same sense of humor as you." Vergil noted.
Time passed by, and now the sun was setting over the horizon. Vergil and Steven remained on the beach with the mirror. The mirror seemed to really like the fart noise because it continued to replay it. Both Half-Gems continued laughing whenever they did it due to the prank back at the speech being pure gold. Thankfully, the mirror stopped, and the boys were able to calm down. "Man, you'd think that would get old at some point, yet it still makes me laugh." Vergil remarked with a grin as he lay on his back, and Steven lay on his stomach with the mirror in hand.
Steven stopped laughing, too. "Yeah, you got a lot of mileage from that joke." He said to the mirror. "You're pretty funny for a mirror."
"You're pretty funny for a mirror."
Steven chuckled. "I'm not a mirror."
"You're pretty funny for a-Ssssteven!"
They both gasped. Needless to say, they were quite surprised by this. "Holy eggshells!" Vergil said, amazed that it could do something like that on its own. "You made something new!"
"Or, can you do it again?"Steven asked it. "Say something else!"
"Ssssteven—and-Vergil-are—a new friend." The mirror repeated, constructing the rather complex sentence from all the people it had heard from today. This made Vergil and Steven exchange smiles when hearing the heartfelt sentence from the mirror.
Steven looked back at the mirror, blushing. "Really?"
"Yeah!"
"You're my friend, too!" Steven proclaimed, and the mirror repeated when Steven laughed.
"I agree. I never thought I'd make friends with a mirror when I woke up today." Vergil commented as the mirror laughed. "It's almost like you're a real person."
"I-am-a real person." The mirror said, repeating Vergil's voice.
"Wha-What?" Vergil was bewildered by the message it had just relayed to him.
Steven suddenly got to his feet and turned to Vergil after gasping as if he had realized something. "You know what? We've got to show the Gems."
"Nooooo!" The mirror suddenly exclaimed, repeating when Steven yelled in panic when he was about to get run over.
This startled Vergil, who recognized the voice and scene. He looked at Steven, but the young Gem was just as surprised as him. "Is there a reason we shouldn't tell the Gems?" He asked. Unsure as to why the mirror would suddenly have a panicked reaction.
"Yeah!"
"Don't be shy. They'll love you." Steven said, trying to calm the worried mirror about meeting the Gems.
"Ssssteven-you-shouldn't tell the Gems."
Vergil was starting to feel uncomfortable. "Steven, I'm not so sure about this anymore."
Oblivious to Vergil's or the mirror's worry, Steven chuckled warmly and was quick to reassure them.
"Don't worry. It'll be fine; they're a good audience."
He then ran off towards the temple with Vergil right behind him.
By the time they made it back to the temple, the sun had gone down. However, before they entered the house, Pearl was stacking the classroom items into a rather tall yet very neat pile until it looked like a tower.
The door burst open, and the two boys entered the house. "Guys! Wait 'till you see—" Steven stopped when he and Vergil saw the pile of school equipment from before that Pearl arranged into a tower while Garnet and Amethyst watched on.
Amethyst greeted the two. "Yo! Ste-man! Ver-gel!"
"Hello, Steven, Vergil." Pearl said much more politely.
"Howdy." Garnet greeted them with a cool smile and pointed a finger gun at the duo. "Bang."
"How come you're stacking all the equipment?" Vergil asked.
"Pearl was in a cleaning mood today, so she made…That." Amethyst said with a bemused smirk. "You guys wanna see something hilarious?" The purple Gem grinned mischievously, grabbed one of Steven's stuffed animals, M.C. Bear Bear, and attempted to place it on the tower. The moment it touched the edge of the pile, Pearl quickly impaled it with her spear, making Amethyst start to laugh.
"You don't understand!" The white Gem scolded the shorter one as she returned her spear, with the bear still impaled on her weapon. "Symmetrical means both sides have to be the same!" Pearl grunted angrily, yanking M.C. Bear-Bear off her spear, then tossed it into a pile of other items she's stabbed.
"M.C. Bear-Bear!" Steven gasped in horror. "Okay, that's great. Anyway, we fixed the mirror!"
"Excellent work, you two!" Pearl praised the two, making her spear disappear.
"You didn't tell us it's like a person." Steven went on. The Gems reacted in shock when they heard that.
"Wait. What?" Pearl asked, confused and taken aback.
"Yeah, it's true. I don't really know how, but it's been talking to us like an actual person." Vergil explained to them. Shocking the Gems even more.
"Say "hey"." Steven said with a big grin, pointing the mirror at the Gems. "…Lil' buddy…" He urged the mirror, but it did nothing. He remained silent while the Gems still looked shocked.
Vergil leaned over to Steven and whispered. "This is why I said we shouldn't tell the Gems."
"Uh… Excuse us." Steven said before turning back to the mirror to try and coax it to reveal itself. "Come on. You want to come out, don't you? You have so much to say and funny noises to share from across the ages. Are we not beach-summer-fun buddies?"
There was a long silence from the mirror before it suddenly gave in and whirled to show Steven making the farting noise. "PBHT!"
Vergil and Steven laughed despite the tenseness. "Just couldn't help yourself, huh?"
The mirror then constructed another original sentence from what it'd recorded. "Just-for-you! Ssssteven-and-Vergil!"
Steven laughed while Vergil smiled and rolled his eyes around at their antics as the mirror recorded them and repeated their laugh. Shifting from one to the other. The Gems now stared wide-eyed at the mirror as it repeated the half-humans' laughter. "It's…Talking to them?" Pearl whispered incredulously as the others stood up. Terrified looks on their faces. "It shouldn't be able to do that. I-it should just be following orders…."
"Garnet, do something…." Amethyst muttered, scared.
Garnet walked towards the two Half-Gems. "Steven, Vergil." She said, her voice sounding much colder than it usually was.
The mirror kept laughing until it saw Garnet approaching. It stopped and let out a panicked cry. "Nooooo!" This alerted the boys quite a bit. This, along with seeing how the Gem leader was towering over them, made Steven and Vergil wary of her as she kneeled.
"You should just give us back the mirror." Garnet said, practically ordering Steven as he still had it. "It will be safer where we can watch it."
"Yeah, let's bubble it!" Amethyst proclaimed, growling.
"Nooooo!" The mirror wailed and continued to cry by echoing itself repeatedly. "Nooooo!"
Vergil looked at the frightened mirror, having no idea what was happening and why the Gems feared it. The dark turn of events made him anxious, confused, and on edge.
"Steven!" When he didn't respond, Garnet called his name again as the room's low light made her face seem mysterious and unnerving. "Don't make me have to take it from you two."
Steven gasped and hugged the mirror close to him as it continued to cry in fear. "It doesn't want to go with you." He fearfully said, backing up against the door. "Don't you hear it screaming?" Steven looked at his guardian in fear.
"Steven, it's just a mirror, a tool. It can't want anything." Garnet said dismissively and tried reaching her hand towards the mirror.
"But that's not true!" Vergil argued, trying to reason with her. "It's a real person, Garnet. The mirror told us that."
"Vergil, the mirror only repeats what it hears. It can't tell you anything you haven't already said." Garnet reminded him, not believing his words.
The mirror echoed repeatedly.
"Nooooo!"
"Nooooo!"
"Nooooo!"
"Nooooo!"
In the end, Steven finally snapped and growled at Garnet. "It wants to be with ME!"
Steven slaps Garnet's hand away, which hits her in the face and knocks her visor off. Amethyst gasps in extreme surprise, and Garnet glares at Steven angrily with all three of her eyes.
Before anything else could happen, Vergil grabbed Steven's arm. He then bolted out the door, dragging Steven along with him.
"I-I'm sorry!" Steven yelled back in distraught.
"Stop apologizing and run, you big dummy!" Vergil yelled, also distraught.
Pearl and Amethyst turned towards Garnet and slowly approached her. The Gem leader was still seething with barely controlled rage as she stood up, walked over to her shades, and picked them up. After putting them back on, she clenched her fists.
"Those little boys…Are in big trouble." Garnet growled before storming out to hunt down the duo.
"Garnet, wait!" Pearl called fearfully as Amethyst and her followed after the tallest Gem. "I'm sure they didn't understand what they were doing!"
The Gems exit the house and go to the beach as Garnet ordered. "Fan out."
Elsewhere, they ran around the side of the cliff the Temple was built into, and only when they were far enough away did he hide them behind a large rock. The two Half-Gems took a moment to catch their breath, and Steven tried to mitigate some of his fear, but it was no good. That's when the anxiety kicked in.
"What are we gonna do? What's their problem with you?" Steven asked, his face expressing dread, glancing down at the mirror in total loss. "Are you trying to say something?"
"Steven, calm down." Vergil attempted to remain cool and took the mirror. "Mirror, tell us what you really are."
To answer his question, it started to change, trying to say something to them. Steven leaned over so that he could see with him.
The glass then started to glow brightly as the mirror began whirring a distorted and disjointed message. Showing several whirled and abstracted faces and images. "Away from home- Let-Me-OUT!" It cried out for help.
"I don't understand!" Steven exclaimed.
"I think I do." Vergil proclaimed. "It said it was a person before, so maybe they're trapped inside the mirror."
"I-am." The mirror confirmed his theory.
"Steven! Vergil!" The two boys gasped when hearing Pearl calling from afar. They were running out of time.
"Then tell us how to help you!" Steven pleaded with the mirror. "What can we do?"
The mirror whirled again and projected something completely different. Instead of using recorded scenes and responses, it relayed its own images. Vergil and Steven watched as it showed their silhouettes on the surface of the mirror. The simplistic scene showed them pulling a Gemstone out of the back of the mirror and freeing it.
Now they understood. Vergil turned the mirror to its back and grabbed the lovely blue Gemstone while Steven held onto the mirror itself, hoping their combined efforts would separate the two. He then began tugging it, trying to pull it out of its prison. But the normal force wasn't going to do it. As he pulled the Gem hard, neither of them noticed the water from the sea began creeping up onto the beach towards them—Forming the pattern of the mirror around them under their feet. After deciding enough was enough, Vergil roared and used all his strength, and they successfully pulled it out.
The mirror shattered instantly when the Gemstone was freed from it, and the water under his feet flowed back into the ocean. Vergil looked at the Gemstone and then at Steven. Suddenly, it levitated out of his hand and into mid-air.
It floated towards the shore, stopping just inches from it. It hovered above the sand for a moment as it glowed. The Gemstone then radiated a bright light that illuminated the nightly beach. Steven and Vergil watched in silent awe as a physical, feminine body formed from the Gem before hair and a dress appeared out of it. The light faded, and the person hovered in the air for only a brief moment before collapsing onto the sand on all fours.
To say that the boys were bewildered would be an understatement. But when they saw her on the ground, they ran towards her. Steven stopped a few feet from her while Vergil quickly went right up to the woman. Kneeling next to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. This made her gasp and glance up at him and Steven. Both boys gasped.
The woman had a slim figure and was considerably tall, but not as tall as Garnet, about the same height as Pearl. She had cyan skin, cobalt blue chin-length hair with long bangs and fringe that covered her entire forehead. The blue Gemstone in the mirror was now embedded in her back. She wore a backless blue halter crop top with an upward-facing navy triangle tied into a blue sash ribbon on the back of her shoulders. She also wore a flowing cobalt blue skirt, which was calf-length with a downward-facing navy triangle around the waist, and wore no shoes. She was beautiful and gracefully looking in her features, but what really startled the boys was that she had reflective eyes without pupils and appeared with a blue navy tone.
Even though her expression was weak and weary, she had a sense of overwhelming gratitude. "…Thank you…" She said with soft sincerity. "You didn't—" Slowly, she tried to stand up but struggled to keep herself up and started to collapse. But Vergil quickly caught her before she hit the ground, feeling how cold her skin was. He helped her stand up again as Steven walked next to him. The woman gave the two a small, warm smile. "You two…Actually talked to me. You helped me! It's Steven…And Vergil, right?"
The two boys smiled and nodded while still in awe at the Gem. "Yeah." Vergil confirmed.
Steven breathes deeply. "Mm."
"I'm Lapis—Lapis Lazuli." The Gem, Lapis, said to them. "Are you two really Crystal Gems?"
"Yeah!" Steven nodded with a bright smile.
"But you set me free." Lapis said in disbelief, much to their confusion.
"But— Wha…" Steven questioned, not understanding what she was talking about.
"What do you mean?" Vergil warily asked her.
"BOYS!" They flinched at the loud voice and turned around to see Gems rushing over to them. Upon seeing the frightened Lapis, they quickly summoned their weapons.
While Vergil stands in front of Lapis, Steven runs towards the Gems. "Wait!"
"You…" He and Steven turned around at the sound of crashing waves and water rushing and gasped when they saw Lapis glaring hatefully at the Gems, hands clenched into fists at her sides. They all then watched in awe as ocean water behind rose up and formed into a massive water arm with a hand that shadowed over the Crystal Gems. The boys realized that it was Lapis, consumed by rage. "You three knew I was in there, and you didn't do anything. Did you even wonder who I USED TO BE!"
Lapis slammed the water arm she created down onto the Gems. Pearl and Amethyst managed to dodge by jumping out of the way, but Garnet was trapped underneath it. The force of the impact knocked Pearl and Amethyst aside.
"Steven! Vergil! Run!" Pearl cried out to the boys with concern.
But they had no intention of leaving and turned to the blue Gem. "What are you doing?!" Steven exclaimed, alarmed by her incredible power.
"I'm Lapis Lazuli, and you can't keep me trapped here anymore!" Lapis declared fiercely, her voice dripping with power, pain, and rage.
Lapis raised her hand, commanding the water to lift once more. But this time, Lapis left the parted ocean in half, creating a path through it.
Vergil and Steven looked at her display of power in amazement before Lapis said with a scowl. "They're not going to let us leave…."
"Leave?" Steven asked, confused.
Pearl and Amethyst then jumped towards them, weapons ready to attack Lapis. However, Lapis quickly lashed some of the ocean at them and pushed them to the ground—Buying herself some time. But there was something she needed to ask. "Steven, Vergil, come with me." She offered.
"Come with you? Where?" Vergil asked with wide eyes.
Lapis turned her head to the night sky with a wistful expression before holding out her hand. "Home."
Vergil's mind was racing right now as so many thoughts were whirling around in his head. Where did Lapis come from, why was she in the mirror, who put her in it, and what did "Home" mean? But for some reason, all those questions stopped being important when he looked at her, specifically her hand.
He didn't know what would happen if he took that hand or where it would lead him. But what he did know was that if he didn't take then Lapis might very well disappear from his sight, and despite just meeting her, Vergil truly felt that he didn't want to see her leave. Because of that, there was only one answer.
"…Okay." Vergil held her hand in his own.
"What?!" Steven gapped, taken aback.
"Thank you." Lapis smiled at him with relief, gratitude, and pure happiness. She then extended her other hand to Steven. "Steven, you come to."
"B-b-but… B-but I… Uh…" Steven stumbled over his words. Like Vergil, he didn't know what she was referring to, but even so, he didn't have the heart to say no. But he could go with her either. Wherever it was that Lapis was heading.
Seeing this, Lapis understood what his silence meant, and her expression fell. "Fine." She said crossly, dispelling the ocean path. Garnet managed to break free of the water arm and punched it away. She then charged toward Vergil, Steven, and Lapis. The water Gem looked at the half-Gem with an expression that was split between anger and despair. "Don't trust them, Steven. Goodbye." She then turned to Vergil. "Vergil, don't let go of me."
Vergil tightly gripped her hand. "I won't."
Without another word, Lapis turned, and she and Vergil walked into the ocean and created a huge wave that knocked Steven and Garnet back away—Completely drenching them. By the time they finished couching out the water in their mouths and regained their breath and bearing, Steven quickly sat up and glanced around to see that Lapis and his friend had disappeared. The Ocean was once again normal.
The three of them stood up as Pearl and Amethyst rushed to their side. Concerned for them, Pearl pulled the boy into a tight, protective embrace. "Steven! Are you two okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine." Steven said, but the reality was that they were still trying to both physically and mentally recover from what had just happened. "So…That was another Gem?"
Pearl let out a long, remorseful sigh. "Yes." She looked around the beach. "Wait, where's Vergil?" She asked before she started to panic. " Vergil! VERGIL!"
Garnet only gazed out to the ocean for a brief moment before saying. "Steven, you're grounded."
The star iris then zooms in on a distant star, ending the chapter.
And that's the chapter.
Surprise, I bet you weren't expecting that ending. As you know, while Steven and Vergil share a lot of similarities, the bottom line is that they are fundamentally different people. So, in situations where your mind is racing, and there's no time to think, the choices they make would be different. So, when Steven is given a choice, and his heart says no, Vergil's heart says yes. Thus, he agrees to go with Lapis. And he will have a closer bond with Lapis than Steven. I mean, she and Steven will still be very close, but it'll be of a different type than her bond with Vergil, like everyone else.
This will have slight effects on the events of the next chapter, but things regarding Lapis will still get wrapped by then, so don't worry about it.
Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed. If you want more, then be sure to leave a review. If you like the story, click follow or favorite, and as always, have an awesome day.